COVID-19: Alberta Education confirms 5 schools will move to online classes | The Canadian News

As Albertans grapple with the fourth wave of COVID-19, the surge in cases is affecting some students.

On Friday, a spokesman for the Ministry of Education confirmed that five schools in Alberta will temporarily switch classes online.

In a statement, spokeswoman Nicole Sparrow said the change was made after individual schools contacted the province.

“At the request of school authorities, five schools have currently been approved to transition to home learning for operational reasons,” Sparrow said. “When Alberta Education receives a request from a school authority, department officials work closely with the school authority and generally a decision is communicated within 24 hours.”

The government takes four factors into consideration before approving the switch to learning at home. They include looking at staff shortages, student absence rates, COVID-19 data from Alberta Health Services, and case rates in nearby communities.

2:05Federal Government Offers Military Aid to Help Fight Alberta’s Brutal Rise of COVID-19

The Education Ministry did not mention the schools or the health zones in which they are located, but Global News confirmed that the schools of the Calgary Board of Education or the Calgary Catholic School District are not affected.

On Friday, all Westglen School students in northwest Edmonton switched to online learning after at least 31 cases of COVID-19 were said to have been self-reported to the school principal.

Outbreak list

This week, three additional Calgary Board of Education schools have been added to the school board online list of sprouts.

North Haven School, WO Mitchell School, and Braeside School were added on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, respectively.

Schools are added to the list when more than 10 percent of the school population is absent or if there is a higher rate of illness than expected.

In these cases, the CBE says it notifies AHS and families are notified.

The Calgary Catholic School District said it does not track self-reported cases or outbreaks.

See link »