Thursday afternoon (April 29th) Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announced new targetted health measures for "hot spot" communities for COVID-19.  

Airdrie was identified as one of those communities with at least 250 active cases of the virus and more than 350 cases per 100,000 people.  At that time Airdrie's case count stood at 369 and our per 100,000 population rate was at 512.  Since then, those numbers have risen.  Today 404 active cases of COVID-19 were reported in Airdrie.  That now makes 560.5 people carrying the virus per 100,000.   

One of the measures the Premier announced was that junior and senior high schools in those hot spot communities would move to online learning for at least two weeks.  At the end of 14 days, the enhanced measures will be lifted once the municipality falls back below the threshold.  If the numbers haven't fallen sufficiently, the measures will remain in place until they do.

Junior and senior high school students, including those in the Rocky View School (RVS) Division in Airdrie, will be forced to make that move.  For RVS, Airdrie schools are the only ones affected by the measures but, a letter to parents and guardians from Superintendent Greg Luterbach and Board Chair Fiona Gilbert says other communities could be impacted if case counts rise in the region.

The letter says RVS will "continue to closely monitor cases impacting both our schools and their communities, required school-related close contact isolations, and substitute teacher availability, to determine if we need to request from government approval to shift other schools and grade levels temporarily online."

Luterbach and Gilbert say the division appreciates that this could become confusing for families and they will ensure clear communication from schools so that families are aware if their student(s) should be learning at home or at school.

RVS has activated Scenario Plan 3 for their junior and senior high school students in Airdrie. It's not the first time that scenario, designed for when at-home learning has to take place after in-school classes are suspended or cancelled, has been put in place.  The plan was also implemented when the province shut down classes for all grade 7 to 12 students in Alberta prior to the Christmas break. 

All other grades remain in the Scenario 1 Plan.   

They have also added a Temporary At-Home Learning Parent/Student Guide to their website with that information intended to help families prepare and to answer some of their questions about temporary at-home learning.

Students attending in-person classes in Kindergarten to Grade 6 across RVS and Grade 7 to 12 in all communities except Airdrie, will continue to go to school as they would normally.  Buses will run for all registered riders in K to 6 across RVS and Grade 7 to 12 in all communities except Airdrie.  Bus service has been temporarily stopped for Airdrie riders.  

RVS wants to reassure parents and guardians that the well-being of all students is their primary focus and that they are committed to supporting a smooth transition with as little disruption to their learning as possible.

Send your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to news@discoverairdrie.ca