A Calgary school has had to close its doors for a day while contact tracing is underway following word of a positive COVID-19 case, a closure that comes amid what advocates are calling a staffing “crisis.”
In a letter to parents on Sunday, the Calgary Board of Education said Coventry Hills School in the city’s northeast would be closed Monday as Alberta Health works to identify close contacts of the person who tested positive.
“This is solely due to staffing capacity issues,” the board said. “This will ensure that necessary operational planning and substitute teachers can be arranged and all health measures maintained.”
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The board didn’t specify whether it was a student or staff member who tested positive.
Families would be told by end of day Monday whether students would be back in their classrooms for Tuesday, or if instruction would continue through Google Classroom for another day.
“As you are aware, every teacher has set up an online presence to support students while at home,” the board said, referencing a virtual presentation of the platform families and students were given in September.
Speaking to Global News on Monday, the advocacy group Save our Students said the staffing issue wasn’t unique to Coventry Hills School, adding that schools across the province are dealing with “a shortage of teachers.”
“This is, unfortunately, not a surprise to us as we’ve been monitoring really closely that staffing is a crisis,” communications director Wing Li said.
“If you get enough teachers that were close contacts of multiple cases, pretty soon you’re going to have no teachers at the school.
“And we also hear from substitute teachers that they’re getting 30 calls a day in the morning [asking], ‘Can you come in and teach.’”
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Li said the situation is “extreme,” adding the organization feels the government should have provided more funding to hire more teachers at the start of the pandemic.
She said teachers have been calling saying they feel overwhelmed, and even some online classes have as many as 50 students.
“We need the government to be honest about what’s happening,” she said.
“We need to see more teachers getting hired and more stable cohorting and smaller classes and just better measures.”
Global News has reached out to Alberta Education for comment on the staffing situation in the province. This story will be updated when a response is received.