Sask. school boards association wasn't consulted on teachers' union's request to delay classes, president says

The president of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association says the association was not consulted by the government on a request from the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation to delay the return to in-person classes this week — despite the education minister saying otherwise.

The government announced earlier this week that in-class learning would continue in Saskatchewan amid surging COVID-19 cases.

The Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) had called for the province to delay classes by two days in order to prepare for the Omicron variant.

During a news conference Wednesday, Education Minister Dustin Duncan said the province consulted with the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA), which represents all 27 divisions, on that request.

"We have worked very closely with our school divisions and the SSBA and there was, from that group, there was certainly no interest that was expressed to extend the holiday break," Duncan said.

However, SSBA president Shawn Davidson said he was not informed that a school delay was on the table.

"There was never any indication given to us from the government that they were contemplating responding to that request [to delay classes]," he said.

"So for divisions, we moved ahead [with] our start up plan, as what our calendars suggested, and we were not given any directive otherwise. So that's essentially how we functioned."

Davidson said the SSBA wasn't lobbying to delay schools and wants them to remain open, but would like to see communication to be bolstered between school officials and the Ministry of Education by reinstating the Education Response Planning Team.

The team — disbanded in July — saw officials from the education and health ministries, SSBA, STF and other education sector partners regularly meet to work through the pandemic response in schools.

"We would really like to see those meetings reconvened," Davidson said.

"It was a really great table for health to share their thoughts with us and their recommendations, and then for us to provide some feedback on how that might look in the education sector. And it was a very important table, and we would certainly like to see that type of consultation continue going forward."

Davidson said school divisions are concerned about taking on school-based contact tracing, as directed by the government.

On Wednesday, the province released guidelines for parents and schools to follow in the event of COVID-19 transmission, asking school staff and parents to report any positive test results to the school, whether it's with a PCR test or a rapid test.