York Region Catholic board approves $15.4M for school reopenings

About $6.1M will come from the ministry

Yorkregion.com
August 31, 2020
Dina Al-Shibeeb

The York Catholic District School Board said it has approved $15.4 million in new investments to help implement its 2020-2021 school re-entry plan.

The decision was made at a special board meeting Aug. 20.

Of the total amount, $6.1 million is from the Ministry of Education and the rest will come from school board reserves, the board told York Region Media Group.

“These additional investments will be used to support various needs in our re-entry plans, including staffing, transportation, increasing remote learning capacity, added measures to improve ventilation, personal protective equipment (PPE), special education supports, staff training, technology for students and more.”

While the York Region District School Board is in the process of purchasing Zoom for its synchronous learning, the Catholic board said its teachers are going to use Google Classroom and Desire to Learn (D2L) Brightspace for virtual learning.

“These platforms provide the functionality required for remote learning, while ensuring the proper security of our working and learning environments.”

More information can be found on the Special Board Meeting Agenda.