Regina public high schools reduce capacity by 50 per cent, move to Level 3 of Sask. Safe School Plan

Public high schools in Regina are taking additional measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Beginning Nov. 12, students in Regina Public School (RPS) high schools will attend classes on alternate days in an effort to reduce school capacity by half every day.

"We're seeing the number of COVID-19 cases increase in all our schools," Terry Lazarou, a RPS spokesperson said.

"High schools generally have more students in them than elementary schools by effectively reducing that number by 50 per cent we are managing to make it a slightly safer environment."

Lazarou said the class size reduction will also help the health authority's contact tracing process because there are fewer students to contact than if classes were full.

Lazarou said student'sschedule for attendance will be based on their last names.

Students with last names that start with A to K will attend school one day, while students with last names that start with L to Z will attend the following days. When students are at home they are expected to work on assignments from their previous day of class.

Enhanced cleaning protocols, improved ventilation systems and mandatory mask requirements for students from Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 in schools, busses and classrooms are additional measures RPS is taking to combat COVID-19.

"Regina Public Schools will continue to monitor our elementary schools and prepare for Level 3 for elementary schools, if necessary," a RPS news release said.

RPS high schools are currently in Level 2 of the Saskatchewan Safe School Plan and the news release from the division said the move to Level 3 effective Nov. 12 was recommended by the Saskatchewan Health Authority.

No case total provided for Thom Collegiate

On Thursday evening RPS announced Thom Collegiate would be shut down due to a rising number of COVID-19 cases among students there.

On Friday Lazarou said the COVID-19 cases were tied specifically to students at the school and deferredto the Saskatchewan Health Authority and public health when asked how many cases were at the school.

"There wasn't a huge number yesterday, what it is, is an accumulative number of students over a number of days," he said.

"In order to ensure contact tracing and verify who was indeed a case, we figured along with our colleagues at public health, the best thing and the safest thing to do is to close the school."

The Ministry of Health said the province and the health authority do not provide specific case numbers for schools.

"Public health notifies contacts of confirmed cases directly, and will work with the school division on the back to school plan recommendations if the risk to the facility determines that they should go to an alternate level of delivery, as per their back to school plan," an email from the ministry said.

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