Schools prepare to reopen with added screening as they await provincial decision
If students go back, it's into high community transmission: epidemiology student
As COVID-19 infections rise across Ontario, the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) is preparing for in-person classes with additional screening requirements while awaiting word from the province on if schools will reopen in the new year.
On Tuesday, Premier Doug Ford said cabinet would meet soonandan announcement would come in thenext couple days about whether schools would reopen for in-personlearning after the Christmas break.
In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for the WRDSBsaid the boardis complying with a direction from the Ministry of Education, askingschool boards to verify the daily screening of all students, staff and essential visitors for the first two weeks of January.
New screening rules
In elementary schools, the board saidparents will still be required tocomplete the province's student COVID-19 screening, which willnow have to be initialled by school staff, while secondary schoolstudents will log in to a web portal to complete their scan.
Schools will develop their own protocols torespond to students who have not completed the verification, said the board.
The board said it will follow the same safety measures it has used this academic year to date, including providing ventilation and sanitizing, andrequiring masks and handwashing.
Meanwhile, board representatives saythey are also preparing for thepossibility of a return to remote learning. Students were equipped with computers, if needed, and in a memo earlier thismonth, the board saidstaff have prepared schools to "ensure asmooth transition, if required."
"Given the rise in cases and our concerns for the health of staff,students and their families, the (WRDSB) is proactively preparing forthe possibility of a move to a remote learning scenario in the newyear," the boardsaid.
Uncertainty has parents concerned
The uncertainty about whetherschools will reopen after thewinter holidays has some parents concerned.
"If schools are opened as scheduled, we will be sending our kids backto school with extremely high levels ofcommunity transmission," Gabrielle Brankston, a PhDcandidate in epidemiology at theUniversity of Guelph and mother of three, told CBC's Metro Morning."The sheer volume of cases so far has already impaired case detectionand contact tracing."
Brankston said thatif the province decides to postpone a returnto in-person classes, it would leave little time for parents to makealternate arrangements for their kids, something she said coulddisproportionately affect lower-income families.
"If we're not going to hear for another two days, we have three daysto prepare our kids for online learning, and teachers to prepare foronline lessons," she said. "It's a big switch."
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