Hamilton public school board's virtual school is 8 teachers short as delays persist

Hamilton's public school board hoped all students enrolled into its virtual school would have a first contact with their teacher by Friday, but the board is still eight educators short.

"We would first like to apologize that we have not yet been able to staff your child's class with the Remote Day School. We had hoped to have the new school staffed by today, but this is proving to be more challenging than we had anticipated," read a notice from Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.

Some of the virtualclasses in Hamilton's public school board still haven't started because of more students enrolling into the online alternative as COVID-19 cases pop up in local schools. The board said that trend is happening across the province, creating a "significant demand" for teachers.

"This is creating an issue where the need for teachers is higher than the number of teachers available and creating more competition for teachers than we would typically experience," reads the board's message.

HWDSB said it hasreassigned teachers to temporarily fill in the remote classes and start next week.

"The reassigned teachers will remain with their class until we can hire and have new staff ready," the notice said.

"We apologize again for the inconvenience and anxiety this delay may be causing you and your child. We will continue to keep you informed of our progress towardfilling all our classes."

On Sept. 18, another letter to families noted more than 2,000 students switched to online learning (from 6,300 students at theend of Augustto roughly 8,700 students on Monday). To accommodate, the board had to hire and train more teachers.

The board had previously said classes would be ready bylast Wednesday.

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Each staff member needs two or three days of training in addition to going through the technology and human resources processes.

When Bill Torrens, HWDSB's superintendent of student achievement and programs, spoke with CBC about the issues earlier this week, he was apologetic and promised thatvirtual school students will be able to catch up to in-person learners.

"Weapologize for the delays and certainly, the scope and demand for the remote school was larger than we had anticipated ... we ask for their patience and understanding," he said.

The Catholic board previously froze the option to switch between remote learning and in-person learning to avoid delays. Now, it is allowingelementary and secondary students to switch untilSept.28.

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