Public board high school students will take one course each week

In the latest twist on back-toschool scheduling, high school students in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board will take one course every day for one week and then will take their other course every day the following week.

Speaking to trustees during budget debate this week, director of education Camille Williams-Taylor explained that the change had been made to reduce contact among students.

“We understand that this is an extended amount of time for students on each course, but the safety improvements are significant,” the board said in a statement.

According to the revised schedule, students will attend school on alternating days and will have two periods of in-class instruction.

The first version of the schedule had students taking two different courses each day they were in school.

The revised version has students taking one course for an entire week, then switching to the other. For example, if a student is taking math and geography, they will have math instruction in class every day in the first week and geography every day in the following week.

Student will have two 112.5-minute instructional blocks with a 10-minute break between the blocks, for a total of 225 minutes of in-person instruction each day.

Students will be dismissed earlier than usual — around 1:12 p.m. for those who arrive at 9 a.m. They will return home for lunch, then have about 75 minutes of “asynchronous” learning at home — this means not in real time — using materials posted by teachers and what was learned at school earlier that day.

Some parents have raised questions about how teachers will keep students engaged in one subject for these long blocks of time. But the board says the revised schedule allows students to remain in defined classrooms for the entire week without travelling to other classrooms, similar to elementary students.

“It further limits the number of contacts and touch points for students and staff throughout the day — students will no longer be using two different desks during the same day.”