Parents have to decide by mid-March on virtual or in-person school next year

Parents at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board will have to decide by mid-March whether they want their children to study online next year.

But the emphasis will be on in-person learning when elementary and secondary students return to schooling next fall and many pandemic precautions will still be in place, trustees were told Tuesday.

It's expected that virtual schools will be much smaller in 2021-22 and cater to children who learn better online or need remote schooling because they or family members have an underlying medical condition.

Parents make the choice. However, fewer programs will be available in virtual schools and classes will be larger.

School next fall will include physical distancing, masking, cohorting of students and limited extracurricular activities, staff said.

Associate director Brett Reynolds said extracurriculars are in a “wait and see” mode depending on the state of COVID-19, but reinstating activities like clubs and sports is a priority next year.

Reynolds said safety still comes first, and the district is planning for the worst, but hoping that restrictions can be relaxed depending on public-health guidance.

Director Camille Williams-Taylor emphasized the need to provide stability for schooling next year.

Students will not be allowed to shift back and forth at will between in-person and virtual learning.

She gave the example of one school district this year that offered “free choice” and as a result had three major reorganizations. Reorganizations mean students may get a new teacher and classmates, change grade configurations — such as moving into or out of a split class — or be put in a larger class.

For high schools, the board plans to continue a hybrid model that sees students attending in-person classes half time and studying online the other half. That is the current direction from the Ministry of Education and it hasn't changed, said Reynolds.

Next fall, secondary students will again study in a quadmester system, taking two courses at a time. They take one course for one week and the other course the next week. The daily schedule is compressed so students don't eat lunch at school, which was done to limit contacts, but some students find that difficult.

Reynolds said the board can shift quickly to two classes a day with a lunch break, or have students return to in-person classes full time, as public health protocols allow. It's easier to start with pandemic restrictions in place and relax them than the other way around, he said.

It could also be possible to switch at mid-year back to the regular semester system, he said.

A parent from Bell High School told trustees that students find the current high school schedule stressful because of the aggressive pace of the compressed quadmester courses and the difficulty of focusing on only one subject each day.

Trustees were also warned that the board will probably face both a revenue and enrolment crunch next year.

The Ministry of Education has given “broad hints” not to expect a continuation of COVID -19-related funding given to boards this year for things like setting up virtual schools, said Williams-Taylor.

The board's enrolment was lower than expected this year. Staff said some parents kept their kindergarten-aged children home and they suspected other children shifted to private schools or home-schooling.

It's unclear what will happen with enrolment next year, said superintendent of finance Mike Carson.