TORONTO -- The chair of a Toronto-area school board expressed concerns about the changing direction the Ontario government has given about school reopening plans over the past month, saying the education minister's comments during a news conference have forced them to go back to the drawing board at least once.
In a letter sent to Education Minister Stephen Lecce, Halton District School Board (HDSB) Chair Andréa Grebenc says the Ford government's winding and ever-changing messaging about school reopening this month has been difficult to follow.
"We are asking for consistency and clarity of vision so that all resources can be focussed on implementing back to school plans," she said in the letter sent on Aug. 21.
Ontario's Education Ministry released a $309 million plan to help school boards reopen back on July 30.
It emphasized embedding hundreds of public health nurses in the school system, conducting surveillance testing on high school students and cleaning, but could not guarantee physical distancing for elementary students in schools.
So the Ministry came back with an offer on Aug. 13 to allow school boards to access their reserve funds to pay for teachers and makeshift extra classrooms to increase distancing, as well as $50 million extra to pay for ventilation and HVAC upgrades.
But in Halton, properly distancing all elementary classrooms would require 1,200 additional teachers, something the board's reserve funds could not even begin to cover.
"This is highly confusing and puts our board in a very difficult position," Grebenc said in her letter, adding that distancing was cited as essential by many of the province's leading epidemiologists and pediatricians.
Grebenc added that the $50 million for ventilation, however it could be split between Ontario's 72 school boards, would likely not even cover retrofitting one older school with air conditioning.
"To retrofit an older secondary school with a partial air conditioning system has cost in excess of $1 million in the HDSB. Facilities staff has been working tirelessly during the summer months to upgrade and update these systems, and inference of lack of safety is not helpful."
She also cited Lecce's answer to a question in a news conference on Aug. 13, where he said that high schools should have students in class 50 per cent of the total time, rather than on 50 per cent of days, forcingher board to completely redraw its plans for high school.
"HDSB staff had begun the process of surveying staff and families about their intent to return. Following your comment about the expectation of in-person instruction at 50 per cent of the time, Board staff immediately paused the process to revise the plan, diverting valuable energy and undermining the community confidence," Grebenc said.
She said the 50 per cent issue for high schools speaks to the constant changes being made to provincial plans for school reopening this month.
"It is very challenging when these announcements come with no advance notice, and Boards hear about them at the same time as thousands of concerned citizens of Ontario who, in turn, expect school boards to have answers. These announcements may trigger complex revision processes that often require additional direction from the Ministry which may or may not come in short order."
In response, a Ministry of Education spokesperson said the plans for September were always meant to be a "living document" and changes were to be expected.
"Our plan is a living document - it’s meant to be augmented and adapted to apply the best advice as it emerges. The leading medical advice was clear that we must allow an opportunity for our students to return to school. We recognize that school boards have developed plans that best suit their local needs."
The Ministry also pointed to the repeated assurances from Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. David Williams that the school plan meets his grade for safety, due in large part to the significant declines in community transmission of the coronavirus this summer.
Grebenc also told Lecce the plan to revamp the math curriculum should be postponed until after the pandemic.
"Overlaying this with new curricula (such as elementary math) complicates these processes and draws energy from where it is needed most."
