THUNDER BAY – The Ontario government has announced new details of its plan for the return to in-person learning on Jan.17.
Carlo Capello, president, OECTA Secondary Thunder Bay says that the return was expected but that premier Doug Ford isn’t doing enough to improve the situation for students and staff.
“Teachers want to go back to class. Students want to go back to class. Nobody likes hybrid. Hybrid has proven to be a very challenging method for providing education for students, for teachers, for parents. It’s not good for students’ mental health. It’s not good for the delivery of education, we’ve said that all along,” said Capello.
“We’ve always believed that children and teachers belong in school where education is best. However we’ve always said that schools should be safe and for Ford to now remove testing, contact tracing and reporting from schools, we’re not confident that he’s doing everything he can to keep schools safe for staff and students.”
During the announcement Wednesday afternoon, officials told reporters that principals and local public health units will only notify parents once 30 per cent of a school's students are absent.
The thirty percent threshold will not require a school to close, but a return to remote learning may be considered at that time.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce and chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore also announced that when students and children in daycare head back to in-person classes on Monday, students and staff will each get two rapid COVID-19 tests to take home.
People who experiences COVID-19 symptoms are expected to test themselves twice, 24 to 48 hours apart between tests. If the results are negative, kids can go back to school when their symptoms improve and daily active screening will be updated with more sensitive screening requirements to help limit the spread of the virus.
Lecce also announced that over 10 million non-fit-tested N95 masks and four million three-ply cloth masks have been sent to schools and daycares for kids and staff to use, with regular shipments to replenish masks.
Ventilation improvement measures will take place at every school across Ontario, the government said, including more than 70,000 HEPA filter units and other ventilation devices already deployed to schools and deployment of 3,000 additional standalone HEPA filters for schools.
“I do know that the government has provided N95 masks to teaching staff and to school staff. I’m not sure exactly if the masks have arrived yet but I do know that the staff that we have that are supporting special needs students have been told that they can only come to work if they have the N95 masks available,” said Capello.
“As for the HEPA filters, I don’t have any information.”
School boards will have access to $1.6 billion in resources to protect against COVID‐ 19, with approximately 2,350 projected additional staff to be hired, including educators, custodians, bus drivers, and mental health workers, the province said.
The province also noted that school boards are teaming up with local public health units to offer in-school vaccination clinics, which would allow children aged 5-11 to get vaccinated, with parental permission.
As well, high contact sports and certain other extra-curriculars will remain restricted when classes resume next week.
