Although a winter storm closed schools and delayed in-class instruction on Monday, the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board is ready to welcome students back to classrooms on the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 18.
Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce had announced the return of in-person learning on Jan. 17 to school boards and parents across the province at a Queen’s Park news conference on Wednesday morning.
KPRDSB Board of Trustees Chairperson Diane Lloyd said the board is up to the challenge of keeping its students safe in the face of the highly-transmissible COVID-19 Omicron variant.
“We continually work to be prepared for our students, so I think that we are well-prepared,” said Lloyd, who also serves as the school trustee for the Municipality of Trent Lakes and the Townships of North Kawartha and Selwyn. “The ministry did say that when kids did go back to school after the Christmas break that it would be (January) the 17th, so it’s not a total surprise that they are making this decision to go ahead and send students back to school. I think we’re in quite good shape, really.”
Lloyd said the education ministry’s promised enhanced Personal Protective Equipment — N95 masks for teachers, HEPA filters for increased air quality in all classrooms, three-ply cloth masks for students and rapid tests — will be deployed at all KPR schools at the start of classes on Monday, with rapid tests following shortly after.
“I believe they are. We do have N95s for our teaching staff, we also have three-ply cloth washable masks for all our students. The HEPA filters, we have been working on that for some time now and all of our classrooms have mechanical HVAC systems with a HEPA filter in the rooms. We feel that the air quality in all of our rooms is quite good.
“Those rapid tests will be handed out to staff and students and that should happen very early on the week of the 17th.”
Although there was some confusion from the education ministry regarding the reporting mechanism for COVID-19 cases within schools, Lloyd said the KPR school board will continue to monitor its schools and keep parents up to date on COVID-19 cases within schools.
“We’re going to continue to monitor our schools daily, we’re going to ask that parents to screen their kids before they come to school, we’re going to continue to ensure the safety measures are in place at every school and we’re going to continue to let people know or keep them advised of the things that are happening in the classrooms, including any students that test positive.”
As for a contingency plan regarding teacher illness, Lloyd said the school board will make use of retired teachers or students on track to become teachers. She notes, however, finding replacement teachers has been a struggle for the board since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s been a difficult situation almost throughout the past two years,” said Lloyd. “When teachers are absent it has become more difficult to replace them in the classroom. The ministry is allowing us to use retired teachers and they’re also allowing us to use students that are going to become teachers. Our first priority and first choice is to have a regular teacher in the classroom, but these other measures will help us make sure there is someone there at all times.”
Lloyd said virtual learning will continue to be an option for parents who’ve signed their children up for it at the beginning of the school year. She’s unsure how many KPR students will continue to receive online learning, but it’s a significantly smaller number at elementary and secondary schools than it was the previous school year.
Lloyd said she is confident the board’s schools are safe for its students return to classes.
“I think our schools are safe. There has been a lot of money spent on ensuring that they are safe places. We have followed all of the guidelines, we have installed the HEPA filters, our students wear masks every day, or teacher wear masks every day, we clean continuously, we pay attention to social distancing, so I believe they are quite safe,” said Lloyd.
“We’re excited to be welcoming students back to school. We do believe it’s the best place for them to receive their education and we’re doing everything we can do to ensure that they’re safe places and we do believe they are safe places.”
