Niagara boards adapting plans ahead of the new school year

Niagara’s public and Catholic school boards are preparing for what the provincial government has in mind for students and teachers when they resume classes in September.

Three options have been laid out that boards should be ready for:

> A return to conventional, regular classroom instruction combined with enhanced health and safety protocols;

> Smaller classes capped at 15 students with alternating attendance, possibly every other day or every other week, is another direction being explored;

> At-home e-learning all year is on the table. The province gave parents the option to voluntarily keep their kids out of school and study from home.

District School Board of Niagara is working on all three potential delivery models.

“It is too early within that process to know what this will look like for September,” said chief communications officer Kim Yielding.

Ultimately, she said, the region’s public health department and the Ministry of Education will determine the strategy used in September.

“Our focus is on our commitment to creating a safe return to learning for all our students and staff when the 2020-21 school year begins,” Yielding said.

Niagara Catholic District School Board education director John Crocco, who retires Aug. 31, said he will spend the summer helping with a smooth transition while planning to reopen.

An “adaptive model” is the focus, said Crocco, adding he doesn’t expect full student populations will be under the same roof at once.

He hopes that soon schools will be able to operate as closely to possible as they did before the pandemic. “We certainly hope for a conventional return, with public health protocols in place,” he said.

Classrooms with no more than 15 students on a rotating schedule is a better option than bringing everyone back simultaneously, Crocco said.

“You need to keep the cohorts together to minimize transmission of the virus,” he said, adding parents deserve structure with the “massive task” of a plan that needs to be put together. “We know parents want some kind of routine.”

Through an online program called Thoughtexchange, Niagara Catholic has received 4,000 comments from 2,700 people on what they would like to see in September, Crocco said.

D.J. Brooks, a parent from Beamsville with two school-aged children going into grades 2 and 4, said it’s too early to take a strong position on how schools should be operating.

Lisa Anderson, a mother from Fort Erie, said the option of rotating schedules would work for her family — but “only if they give parents enough notice to get child-care in place.”

In a news release, the Ontario government said it is instructing boards to be prepared with a plan, should it be required, with a model that could “include alternate day or alternate week attendance, staggered bell times and recess, and different transportation arrangements, among a variety of other considerations to ensure the safety of students and staff.”