Edmonton Catholic Schools brace for staffing challenges as students ready to return

Edmonton Catholic Schools says it’s bracing for staffing challenges ahead of the return of students next week.

Alberta schools are set to reopen to students on Jan. 10, but the district says it already knows of 70 teachers who will be absent on Monday.

“We simply don’t know what next week will hold,” said ECSD board chair Sandra Palazzo.

“We do expect that with a rapid spread of the Omicron variant that there is going to be an impact on staffing levels.”

Chief superintendent Robert Martin said between 140 and 200 teachers are currently absent.

ECSD has said it has about 5,000 total staff, of which about 2,000 are teachers.

It says installation of MERV 13 rated filters at schools will be completed in the coming weeks as per recommendations from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

Alberta has broken the new daily case record for COVID-19 several times in recent days, despite limits on testing capacity and eligibility.

The province has said that students will return and be given rapid test kits as well as medical-grade masks by the end of next week.

School districts can still shift specific grades or classes to temporary online learning if there are COVID-19 cases, but requests to move entire schools to at-home learning must be approved by the minister of education.

The Edmonton Public School Board has previously said it was also dealing with staffing challenges, reporting 151 unfilled positions in December, primarily due to COVID-19.