The Simcoe County District School Board held a media event on Thursday afternoon to answer questions about their back-to-school plan, which was emailed to parents and presented to school board trustees during their board meeting on Wednesday night.
To read our full story on the nine-page back to school plan including questions asked by trustees during their meeting, click here.
Thank you to readers for sending in additional questions.
Jennifer asked: In a case where a class is partially vaccinated and the teacher is not, if there were a COVID case and the un-vaccinated students and teacher would have to be in isolation for 10 days, what would happen to the rest of the class?
“Case contact and contact tracing is really under the purview of the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, so we will follow their direction. They will provide communication for us to send to families if there has been a case in a school,” said Dawn Stephens, Superintendent of Education.
Stephens said that based on the provincial guidelines, students and staff who have been vaccinated will have different instructions than students and staff who have not been vaccinated.
“There will be a different procedure,” she said.
Jennifer asked: Is there an option for a parent to request a vaccinated teacher?
Superintendent of Education Brian Jeffs said teachers will be able to complete an attestation regarding their vaccination status, however individual personal medical information is protected under privacy legislation and will not be provided to the general public. However, the board will release overall data regarding the percentage of staff, board employees and trustees who are vaccinated or unvaccinated.
“Whether someone is vaccinated or not is a private health matter,” said Jeffs. “Those (individual) pieces of information will not be released.”
Jeffs said staff who are not vaccinated will be required to undergo an educational program and subject themselves to regular rapid testing.
Amy asked: Will a Grade 9 orientation be put in place? Will there be a staggered start to the return of school similar to last year?
School officials told Village Media that there will be no staggered start this year for in-class learners, and all in-person learners will be back in class on Sept. 7.
They said that Grade 9 orientation would be occurring, but each school would be planning their own events and they would vary on a school-by-school basis. Schools will be reaching out to affected families to communicate plans on orientation events.
Lisa asked: When will they allow use of their facilities by community groups and clubs?
“Right now, we are not open to anyone other than our own essential staff and students,” said Stephens. “Our main priority is getting our schools re-opened. We want to get routines re-established and get everything working, and then we will look at volunteers and visitors.”
While the provincial guidelines do allow for volunteers and visitors to be back on school property, Stephens said the public board has opted to take a more cautious approach.
“We need to make sure we protect our staff and students as best we can,” she said.
J. asked: Will high schools still have hybrid learning in place?
Stephens said secondary remote learners will, for the most part, be taking e-learning courses.
“There may be some hybrid, but there will not be hybrid (learning) throughout the schools as there was last year,” she said.
Laura asked: Can you tell me if the students in secondary school will have lockers?
Stephens said schools will be slowly be issuing lockers again to students come the fall.
“Maybe not everyone gets a locker on their first day and runs to their locker, but we are looking at a procedure for opening up lockers again at each individual school,” she said.
Village Media asked (on behalf of Facebook commenters): What was the rationale behind the choice to cancel exams this year?
“One of the things we want to focus on is the assessment and evaluation of students,” said Stephens. “We really want to look at, what improvements can we make?”
Stephens said the Ministry of Education has given the green light to school boards to cancel formal exams in 2021/22 if they see fit.
“We’re going to move forward with that plan,” she said.
Village Media asked: Will anything be changing regarding the daily public reporting of new COVID-19 cases in schools this fall?
Stephens said daily school-by-school case reporting will be continuing this year on the Simcoe County District School Board website.
There was additional information not outlined in the plan given at the media event regarding vaccination clinics in schools.
The following seven schools will be hosting vaccination clinics during the first few weeks of school:
- Georgian Bay District Secondary School in Midland
- Barrie North Collegiate Institute in Barrie
- Banting Memorial High School in Alliston
- Elmvale District High School in Elmvale
- Stayner Collegiate Institute in Stayner
- Bear Creek Secondary School in Barrie
- Twin Lakes Secondary School in Orillia
- Nantyr Shores Secondary School in Innisfil
More details regarding vaccination clinics will be sent directly to parents once they are finalized with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
