At-risk teachers can work at home

Educators with health risks may lead online instruction for kids staying away

Kelowna-area teachers who are “medically-compromised” can continue to work from home rather than return to class when schools re-open June 1.

With only half of the district’s 23,000 students expected to return, many teachers will be needed to continue providing online instruction, superintendent Kevin Kaardal says.

“Currently, only 50 per cent of families indicate that they will be sending their children or youth for on-site instruction starting June 1st,” Kaardal said in an email to The Daily Courier.

“Therefore, the district will need to continue to provide remote learning services in some fashion,” he added.

“Educators who are medically compromised can continue their exceptional work supporting those students working remotely.”

Safety protocols surrounding the return to classes have been devised by the school district in co-operation with public health officials and the Ministry of Education, Kaardal said.

Parents can choose whether or not to have their children and teens return to school. Elementary school-aged children can attend class two days a week, but middle and high school students will be at school only one day a week for the month of June.

For the past few weeks, teachers have been expected to be at Kelowna-area schools for at least one day a week. Some districts have required teachers to be at school since classes were suspended in late March.

Kaardal was asked in an email whether Kelowna-area teachers who do not want to return for in-class instruction in June, possibly out of concerns for their personal safety given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, could simply choose to remain at home and oversee online instruction, or whether they would have to provide a doctor’s note.

Kaardal did not answer directly, but said: “The district does its best to accommodate medical concerns that arise with all of our employees, and the current circumstance is no different. Teachers with medical concerns are handled on a case-by-case basis.”

As in many collective agreements, the one between teachers and the province says that the employer “may” require teachers who are calling in sick to provide a doctor’s note.

Education Minister Rob Fleming said last week that there was no guarantee that returning students would all be placed in classes with the teacher who had been instructing them prior to the suspension of classes.

“Classes will stay with their teacher in every circumstance where that’s possible. There will be some exceptions due to health conditions and those sorts of things,” Fleming said.

“But we have school-based teams to fill in the gaps should they arise, and we expect classes to be kept together.”