HWDSB has been planning for potential pivot to full online learning during COVID-19

Hamilton's public school board isn't expecting any immediateschool closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, but over the past month, it'sbeen planning how torespond if a schoolor the entire board need to move to fully online learning.

Shawn McKillop, Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board'sspokesperson, said in an email on Monday morning thatHWDSB has been following a memofrom the provincesince Oct. 14.

Manny Figueiredo, the board's director, said the process has a few steps:

• Having online platforms in place for students.
• Taking stock of how many in-person staff are working.
• Ensuring studentscan use the online systems.
• Determining how ready families would be to make a switch to online learning.

"We know our 9,000 kids in elementary[remote learning] are ready. They're living it already every day. All our secondary students, they do remote every day. Not all their classes, but they're ready," he said in an interviewTuesday morning.

The board sent a questionnaire Friday to families whose elementarystudents are attending in-person classes, he said. That memoasked families if they have adequate technology and Internet.

While it was not a normal call out,it wasn't sent outof an urgent fearthat schools will close, he said. And itwasn't a signal to parents that they need to stock up. It was a measure to update the same information they collected back in March, he said.

"What we didn't want is to think that data is still relevanttoday because people's situations can change,"Figueiredosaid."With COVID and the pandemic, the financial situations could change for families."

"We've never had to close a school. We've had to close classrooms for 14 days and sure enough, we can pivot."

The board handed out some 6,000 devices to students in April and has a procedure in place for handing out more if needed. It will share the results of the new survey, which families can fill out until midnight on Wednesday, at the nextCOVID-19 update to board trustees.

While HWDSB has its online platformsin place, it has been wrestling with technical issues since the summer.

The Parent Portalprovoked the ire of parents, while its Microsoft Teams and The Hub systemsembarrassed some transstudents.

Figueiredo said despite the variousissues, the board is refining itssystems and doesn't plan on discontinuing them anytime soon.

More than 100COVID-19 cases in schools since pandemic started

Figueiredo saidthe public board has encounteredroughly 55 infectedstudents andstaff members as of Tuesday morning.

The latest COVID-19 infections late Mondaysaw one new student case eachatSir Allan MacNab Secondary School,Queensdale Elementary School andRidgemount Elementary School.

TheSir Allan MacNab student wasn't in the building while infectious and posed no risk to the community, but anystudents and staff atQueensdale and Ridgemount who may have been exposed need to self-isolate for 14 days.

The Catholic board, meanwhile, has seen 48 cases as of Tuesday at noon.

A staff member atSt. Francis Xavier Catholic Elementary School tested positive on Monday. That person waslast in the building on Friday.

Local schools are not spreading COVID-19

Despite new cases,schools have not led to mass outbreaks or spread of the virus.

"It's not the schools where we're seeing the issues right now. It is the things we choose to do in our private lives, and that's where we need to have most of the emphasis," Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, Hamilton's medical officer of health, told CBC News at the end of September.

"In terms of schools and keeping them open, at this point here in Hamilton, we've seen a lot of really good work done by all the schools. They've paid a lot of attention. They're moving forward. They're figuring out how to deal with the tricky issue of kids getting these mild illnesses, and what is COVID and what is not."

Figueiredocredits families self-screening each day and Hamilton's 23public health nurses dedicated to schools.

"Parents are always going to be worried. As a parent the safety of my children isthe priority. But I think we need to reassure parents this is a plan we had to prepare for, and it's not just for system-wide closure. It's to make sure that if there's a school that's closing ... we want to be ready for that as well."