Schools get go-ahead to stagger restart over two weeks

Thestar.com
August 19, 2020
Kristin Rushowy

Ontario schools will now be able to stagger the restart of classes in the elementary grades over two weeks, says a memo from the education ministry that landed as the Toronto public board presented three, last-minute revamped models to help decrease class sizes for younger students, especially in vulnerable communities.

Saying available funding is “limited and will not be sufficient” for smaller classes across the board, Interim Director Carlene Jackson said during a virtual meeting Tuesday that “we will not be able to achieve what we all hoped to achieve, but we hope we can do the best we can within limited resources available.”

Two metres of physical distancing will not be possible in all elementary classes, the board said, so it will target schools in areas hard-hit by COVID-19 -- similar to the plan approved by Toronto’s Catholic board.

The Toronto public board, the country’s largest, also unveiled a new high school timetable that still has teens in class every other day, but with longer in-person periods in the morning and shorter, online classes in the afternoon that include live videoconferencing.

Executive Superintendent Jim Spyropoulos said it means high schoolers are in person in school about 40 per cent of the time, which is close to the half-time Education Minister Stephen Lecce has said he wants.

The last-minute changes required by the education ministry have left Toronto and a number of larger, urban boards scrambling to redo schedules to implement a combination of in-school and online learning for high schools with sufficient in-person time.

The Toronto board also had to revamp its elementary schedule after a proposal to limit class sizes to 15 to 20 students from kindergarten to Grade 8 was nixed because it ended the school day 48 minutes early to accommodate teacher prep time with the lowest cost possible.

Lecce and Premier Doug Ford have instead urged the unions to be flexible with prep time and work with them, though some teacher unions have said they are willing to do so.

The Toronto board’s new models all include redeploying about 400 teachers from central or non-classroom positions. An additional 86 teachers, costing an extra $9 million, could be funded through ministry monies and “repurposed” board budget funds; adding 280 extra teachers, costing almost $30 million and requiring the board to dip into reserves, or adding 1,046 teachers, using reserves and increasing the deficit to about 3 per cent.

Trustees are to vote on their preference later this week.

Earlier Tuesday, Ford said he knows “parents are nervous. Nervous. I have four girls. I get it. We have the best plan in the country, bar none. Now we’re pulling out all the stops.”

He noted the province has provided about $900 million in funding for additional staff and cleaning, among other items -- a figure that includes about $500 million that boards can access from their reserve funds.

Ontario has also mandated masks on all children starting in Grade 4.

But the plan didn’t appear to be enough for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who would not commit to sending his children back to school next month.

“Like so many parents, that’s something that we are in very active discussions on,” he told reporters in Ottawa.

In Toronto, the city has offered the public and Catholic boards the use of 36 rooms to help alleviate classroom crowding, a concern public health has raised, and says more are available if city programs are cancelled.

Trustee Mark Fisher, of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, said he is “pleased with the ability to have (a) two-week, staggered start, something I’ve been advocating for in Ottawa.”

Toronto Trustee Rachel Chernos Lin said she thinks the board will get “parent pushback” on the days high school students are to study independently at home with live videoconferencing from home in the afternoon.

NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles said the province is “literally preventing our school boards from providing more, smaller class sizes for younger children. They keep moving the goal posts, shifting the rules, and tightening the purse strings.”