THUNDER BAY – Thunder Bay’s two largest school boards have revealed results from parent surveys, with preliminary results indicating at least 1 in 10 students will stay home come September.
The substantial number of students learning from home is good news for efforts to lower class sizes in the face of COVID-19 concerns, said leaders with the Lakehead District School Board and Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board.
82 per cent of public school students will be returning to schools, while 7 per cent opted for at-home learning. Another 11 per cent had yet to respond as of Monday afternoon.
At the English Catholic board, 77 per cent of students were confirmed to return, while 11 per cent will learn at home and 12 per cent had yet to respond.
Parents keeping children home will have the chance to move them back to in-class learning in October, while students can move to at-home learning at any time.
The boards will be calling parents who had not responded to the surveys to finalize numbers over the coming week. LDSB director of education Ian MacRae said his board assumes the bulk of those who didn't answer will be keeping their children home.
Both MacRae and his counterpart at the English Catholic board, Pino Tassone, anticipated being able to lower class sizes thanks to the sizeable number of students opting for at-home learning.
“The more that [do] remote learning, the easier it will be to determine we’re going to have smaller class sizes,” Tassone said. “It’s going to vary from school to school, but we’re going to try our best.”
Board officials were also considering factors such as the physical dimensions of classrooms in determining individual class sizes, Tassone added.
MacRae said he understands the uncertainty many families are feeling as the school year looms – particularly when it comes to the lack of guaranteed minimum physical distancing on buses and in schools.
“Parents, rightly so, are concerned about it – distancing has from day one been the major factor,” he said. “We’re not entirely thrilled we haven’t been able to get to [a] 15-to-1 [student-teacher ratio].”
The scramble to prepare for both in-school and online learning and meet provincial guidelines that continue to change only weeks from the planned return to school could push back start dates for at least some students, Tassone warned.
“It’s like building a whole school board from the foundation up,” he said. “We’re hopeful we’ll be ready, but we’re really under a lot of pressure between now and school start… there may be some extensions as we move forward.”
For his part, MacRae anticipated an on-time start for LDSB, though he admitted that wasn’t a sure thing.
“It’s going to be tight, but provided there’s no surprises over the next two weeks, we’re pretty confident we can make it,” said MacRae.
