Back-to-school safety plan developed for Hutterite colonies

Health authorities in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba, along with the Hutterian Safety Council and local school divisions, have come up with a plan they believe will keep people safe when schools reopen.

The draft plan will soon be presented to Hutterian leaders, according to Kyle McIntyre, the director of education for the Chinook School Division.

McIntyre says half of his division’s 64 educational facilities in southwestern Saskatchewan are Hutterian schools and more than half of the province’s Hutterite population lives in that part of the province.

“On our colonies, we’re going to be a lot more vigilant about the daily screening of both the students and staff,” McIntyre said.

“We’re going to be doing frequent temperature checks as those students arrive at school. We’re going to be reiterating practising good hygiene and sanitization, and of course physical distancing and masking and other personal protective equipment where physical distancing is not able to be achieved.”

The biggest issue, he said, is strict adherence to the plan and the commitment to work openly and honestly with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, teachers, the Hutterian Safety Council and the leadership of every colony.

In fact, McIntyre says every First Minister and German teacher on every colony is being contacted, and expectations are being shared about strict school health and safety procedures.

“If we have any kind of a breach or lack of  co-operation, then (the plan) is going to come off the rails very quickly and we are not going to deploy any staff to those schools,” McIntyre said.

“We require co-operation. We require communication. We require transparency and honesty and we will work with any colony that wants to agree with those principles.”

So, have colony leaders agreed to the plans laid out?

“We’re having some open and honest and frank conversations,” McIntyre said. “(The) key for us is that the colonies have to let us know when they’re healthy and not healthy.

“If there’s an unwillingness to do that, then we cannot be putting any staff physically in buildings and we’ll have to support learning remotely through physical packages that we would drop off at the colony.”

He adds that the health and safety measures are “not a negotiation” and that “many eyes” have been on the school plan, including Hutterite elders, spiritual leaders, and health and government officials.

“We need to follow this plan to a T in order to keep kids and staff safe,” he emphasized.

Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation reacts

According to the SHA, as of late August, there have been more than 600 cases of COVID-19 on Hutterite colonies.

Patrick Maze, the president of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, said he has heard some concerns from teachers about heading back to class on colonies.

“Given the number of outbreaks and the number of cases of COVID-19 in Hutterite communities, the schools present a bit of a focus of concern for us, and some of our members have contacted us expressing those concerns as well,” he said.

However, he adds the STF has confidence that the plans will attend to the concerns teachers have at this point.

“I think that the dangers can be mitigated with deep-cleaning schedules and with provisions for social distancing and personal protective equipment,” he said. “They can be made safe. It seems like the school divisions and the health authority are doing all they can to do that.”

Hutterian Safety Council’s views

Previously, the chair of the Hutterian Safety Council, David Tschetter, said identifying COVID-19 cases through aggressive testing will actually help as the communities prepare for back to school.

“The Hutterite culture has a single-room classroom, or maybe two classrooms, and anywhere from 15 to 30 students who are basically siblings or extended family, so therefore an extension of the family environment,” said Tschetter.

“The biggest challenge will be to treat the student body as one entity because it’s an extended family of the culture itself, and then to identify the risk factors between the student body and the teachers.”

Tschetter says the safety council has worked through a very rigorous plan with input from the SHA and says it’s in good shape for the upcoming school year.