REGINA Two schools in the Good Spirit School Division (GSSD) have confirmed cases of COVID-19 variants of concern. All grades at Yorkton Regional High School and pre-kindergarten to Grade 6 at Davison School in Melville are moving to remote learning for the next week. It’s somewhat concerning in that we don’t have experience with [the variant] and it’s something new, Quintin Robertson, GSSD’s director of education, said. We’ve tried to take a measured approach, we have no experience with this, so we wanted to air on the side of caution. Robertson said with the help of local health officials, the school division has deployed rapid testing at both schools to proactively find any additional cases.
Zwaagstra also has some roots in Saskatchewan, having graduated from Yorkton Regional High School. On Aug. 10, he said, “I think that Saskatchewan has to balance the challenge of managing COVID-19 with the absolute necessity of getting kids back in school.” He said, “I would have a very strong preference for students to have in-class instruction. I think all students should be back, with priority to Kindergarten to Grade 8. But really, it s best for high school students to be back everyday as well. And I would favour limited physical distancing measures. So, for example, don t have all-school assemblies. Don t have evening events that are open to the public, that people come and watch sports games. Make sure that hand sanitizer is available. Encourage teachers to set up classrooms in a way that reduces contact to the greatest degree possible.