TDSB to delay online school for elementary students

Thestar.com
Sept. 11, 2020
Johanna Chisholm

The Toronto District School Board is delaying the opening of its virtual schools for elementary students until Thursday, Sept. 17.

Remote learning will be done at four “virtual schools” and will pool students from across the TDSB whose parents opted for online learning in surveys sent out last month. They were set to open on Tuesday but, due to the large number of students who opted for online learning (more than 66,000 out of 247,000), the board requires more planning time.

This follows an announcement Wednesday that high school students -- attending in-person and virtual classes -- would also be delayed in going back until Sept. 17.

Classes in school boards across the GTA were originally supposed to resume Sept. 8, but back-to-school preparations under the COVID-19 pandemic -- including determining enrolment, setting up hygiene and safety measures, providing educators with the necessary skills and tools to build online synchronous learning and in-person lesson plans -- forced many boards to stagger or delay the traditional post-Labour Day start.

Ryan Bird, manager of media relations for the TDSB, said Thursday that the board is trying to rearrange student timetables and teacher assignments in just a few weeks, a process he said would typically take months.

“There’s a lot of moving pieces,” he said. Though school officials had begun sending out some of the assignments for teachers this week, there are still some who won’t know whether they’re teaching online or in-person until Sunday or Monday.

An email was sent to parents who had opted for online learning late Thursday afternoon to let them know about the changes, Bird said.

TDSB Parent-Guardian Letter - September 10, 2020

Each of the four virtual elementary schools will be staffed with their own teachers, principals, vice-principals, guidance counsellors and support staff.

Secondary students attending the TDSB Secondary Virtual School, as well as elementary students, will maintain a connection with the school that holds their permanent records (known as their home school). They too will have an entirely new set of teachers, principals and support staff for their remote learning experience.

As of Sept. 7, there were 50,541 elementary and 16,091 secondary students enrolled in virtual learning, with each group being allocated more than 2,200 and 770 teachers respectively.

Secondary students who opted to return for in-person teaching will still be required to do part of their learning online at home, alternating between days of in-person instruction and online learning, while elementary students are receiving, depending on what their parents opted for, instruction either entirely remotely or in-person.