No firm date for classroom studies to resume
Although children have returned to their classrooms in other part of the province, there’s still no guarantee Niagara’s students will follow suit next week.
Monday, while announcing plans for increased testing of students and staff, funding for school boards and allowing upper-year university students in education programs to fill empty supply positions, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce would not commit to a timeline for reopening schools to inclass lessons.
Asked about possibility of reopening schools Feb. 10 in locations such as Niagara,
Lecce said he hopes “to provide that clarity to parents (about when their children can return to classrooms) based on the advice of the chief medical officers of health.”
“We want to get this right,” he said, adding the province has taken a cautious approach to reopening schools to help ensure they will remain open. “We know parents want certainty on the
matter and we hope we can provide that in the coming days, based on risk assessment and, more importantly, based on the stronger stricter protocols put in place to make sure when we reopen all kids can be safe in this province.”
District School Board of Niagara communications officer Carolyn Loconte said the board will keep parents up to date on DSBN’S social media sites, as well as its COVID-19 website.
“We believe in-person learning is best for student achievement and well-being, and we look forward to welcoming our students back soon,” she said.
During Monday’s announcement, Ontario chief medical officer of health Dr. David Williams said decisions about when schools reopen are not entirely based on numbers of cases within a community. He said the province considers factors including “trends and directions as well as systems that
are there for backup and, most importantly, the local medical officer of health — how they feel about what’s going on in their community.”
Before allowing schools to reopen, Williams said he wants to see that municipalities have plans in place to safely reopen, and that the local medical officer of health is satisfied with those plans.
Niagara’s school boards welcomed measures to help ensure schools can reopen safely, such as $381 million provincewide in funding for personal protective
equipment, summer learning for kids who’ve fallen behind or need a refresher on key concepts, and portable air filters, and funding to buy more devices for students for virtual learning.
The government’s plan to help boards in their struggles to find occasional teachers by allowing university students in education programs to fill empty supply positions is unprecedented. In order for university students to qualify for the newly created temporary teaching certificate, they must be doing well in their teacher education program, have some in-class experience and be on track to graduate by the end of 2021.
“As a board, we will look into some of the new initiatives mentioned in the announcement, specifically the information about rapid testing and employing teacher-candidates when necessary to ensure we have staff to support our schools,” said Niagara Catholic District School Board education director Camillo Cipriano.
“Niagara Catholic is fortunate to have an excellent relationship with Niagara Region Public Health, who we will turn to for guidance on implementing rapid testing if it is necessary when schools reopen, as well as an excellent resource with Brock (University)’s faculty of education which has a cohort of teacher-candidates who I am sure are eager to receive experience as we are to welcome them.”