Sainte-Odile school closed due to COVID-19

A Montreal elementary school has been closed since yesterday because “several students” have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past two weeks.

Sainte-Odile school, in Cartierville, will be closed until Friday, confirms the Montreal School Service Center (CSSDM).

The newspaper obtained the letter sent to parents on Monday evening by the Direction régionale de santé publique de Montréal (DRSP).

“Over the past 14 days, several students at your school have been diagnosed with COVID-19,” read the letter. A “temporary closure” was therefore recommended “given the impact of administrative segregation on the management of the establishment.”

Neither the CSSDM nor the DRSP wanted to specify the exact number of positive cases or the circumstances that led to these outbreaks and the decision to close the establishment of 530 students.

Sainte-Odile was not one of the schools targeted for access to rapid screening tests, indicates Alain Perron from the CSSDM communications office.

In addition, distance education will not begin until Thursday for the students of Sainte-Odile whose class was not already closed, we can read in an email sent by the school on Monday.

At the start of the pandemic, Minister Jean-François Roberge promised that in the event of a class or school closure, the network would be able to “switch” to distance education in 24 hours.

However, the maximum time to switch is rather 48 hours, specifies the Ministry of Education in the document detailing the instructions and dated September 17.

Hundreds of devices

“Less than 48 hours, that’s the obligation. But in fact, sometimes teachers start faster, ”notes Kathleen Legault, president of the Montreal Association of School Managers.

This deadline is more realistic, she explains, in particular to give students time to pick up their equipment left at school or to distribute technological devices to young people who do not have any.

“For example, in the school that I ran, it was 500 devices that had to be deployed,” she illustrates.

At the time of publication, the Ministry of Education had not answered our questions.

According to the ministry’s latest report, there were two closed or partially closed schools across the province as of Monday.

The other closed school counted in this report is undoubtedly Cœur-Immaculé, in Sherbrooke, which was closed Monday and Tuesday.

-With the QMI Agency

SEE ALSO