Algoma District School Board (ADSB) trustees approved the board’s Guidelines for Reopening ADSB Schools at a special, two-hour virtual meeting held Thursday.
“It (the Guidelines document) follows more or less the Ministry’s document, the Guide to reopening Ontario’s schools (but) we’ve interspersed in there things that might be unique to our board to go along with that,” said Lucia Reece, ADSB director of education.
The board’s Guidelines for Reopening ADSB Schools, Reece said, will be made public on the ADSB’s website Friday.
Classes resume with a host of COVID-19 precautions in place Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Much of Thursday’s meeting, however, focused on students from ADSB families who have opted to keep their children and teens away from COVID-era classrooms and continue with remote learning.
“We have, at this point, 1,200 students who have opted for remote learning from JK to Grade 12, about 700 elementary, 500 secondary...we are in the process now of assigning administration. We basically are treating this as our virtual school,” Reece said.
“We’ve started the process of having to collapse classes and reorganize schools where we are pulling teachers and are looking to staff what I’ll call ‘the virtual school’...we anticipate having to hire staff and use some reserves for that. We are lobbying with the Ministry because to date we’ve not received any additional funding. There was some funding made available but our board was not on that list, as were a number of other northern Ontario boards.”
“We are looking at possibly officially starting remote learning in the second week of September. We want to use that first week to connect with families and students to make sure we've got courses in order...we want to make sure their technology works,” Reece said.
“It’s a work in progress but we’re working diligently to pull it all together.”
Joe Santa Maria, ADSB superintendent of business, said he is optimistic remote learning will succeed despite slower internet in rural Algoma, Reece adding it may come to the point where learning materials will once again have to be delivered to some homes.
Reece said having remote learning in place is a wise move, given the fact that a second wave of COVID-19 could shut down schools again.
For students returning to the classroom, Jennifer Sarlo, ADSB chair, said “I would like some comfort around our messaging as a board...that will deflate anxiety and allow people to feel comfortable with this move back to the classroom."
Sarlo asked if the board has received any extra funding for mental health support for students, especially during September.
To that, Brent Vallee, ADSB superintendent, answered “we know there’s a lot of anxiety about moving back to school or moving into remote learning,” stating the board will be drawing on mental health materials and some extra funding provided by the government, teachers to be focusing a great deal on mental health during three professional development days to be held Sept. 1 through 3.
Reece added the board has been working closely with a transportation consortium in regard to health and safety precautions for students who will be bussed to and from school.
Santa Maria said those precautions include a vacant seat behind the driver for his/her health and safety, PPE and deep cleaning of buses before and after students are on the buses.
ADSB Superintendent Marcy Bell said physical education will be there for students in the soon to reopen schools, but modified.
Bell said, for example, students will no longer play basketball in the usual team format, but rather, individual students will use basketballs to practice their dribbling while socially distanced from others, stating physical education will focus on movement (on rainy days, physical education will focus on indoor wellness lessons).
“Whatever model parents have chosen for the fall (in class or remotely) we are confident their students are going to thrive and grow and get a good education this coming fall,” ADSB Chair Jennifer Sarlo said at the conclusion of Thursday’s meeting.
