First school board to redeploy staff to health care sector is in Kenora, Ont.

The first school board in Ontario to redeploy its staff to the health care sector is in northwestern Ontario.

The agreement comes after the provincial government said it wanted school board staff to assist in hospitals, long-term care homes and other health care facilities, if needed. The board has 14 staff who would be eligible to work at the hospital.

Sherri-Lynne Pharand, the board's director of education, said staff would have to agree to taking any shifts at the hospital, if their assistance is needed.

"Perhaps they would clean less infectious areas of the hospital, for example, and it would allow the hospital to redeploy its CUPE staff who have more training in infectious disease to be able to do deeper cleans in those areas."

Pharand said custodial staff are still required throughout the board, although their jobs have changed.

"There are still maintenance pieces at our board that custodians are still working on," she said, "but the same level of cleaning is not required when staff and students are in the building every day."

The Northwestern Health Unit, which includes the Kenora area, currently has no active cases of COVID-19.