School officials in Lambton-Kent say the first week of returning to in-class learning went well and in some cases went better than anticipated.
Education Director of the St. Clair Catholic District School Board Scott Johnson said as of Thursday there were no school or class closures at his schools this week because of COVID-19 and he is pleased with the result so far. Johnson said his schools have found teacher replacements and absenteeism was actually lower than in December.
He said emergency staffing has also not been used to cover classes such as using adult supervisors, library technicians, and principals.
"I'm pleasantly surprised to share that this week went better from a staffing and student perspective with respect to attendance than we had hoped or prayed for," said Johnson.
It's not all rosy though.
Education Director of the Lambton-Kent District School Board John Howitt said the first week also went well at his schools with no closures but warns that some schools are close to calling in replacement teachers because of illness and self-isolation from the virus. Howitt reported 10 per cent of staff and 12 per cent of students are either sick or self-isolating due to COVID-19.
"Those numbers are approaching concern where we're going to have use central staff to help fill absent classes. We're not there yet," Howitt said.
Howitt said school officials should have a better idea next week of how the return to school has truly gone. He said information from western Canada shows that it takes 7-10 days to really tell the whole story.
He also said 98 per cent of students returned to class on Monday while the others started with remote learning for now for a variety of reasons.
Howitt also reminds parents that the three-ply masks sent to the schools are not being handed out to students for regular use and are only used as a backup if a student damages or forgets their mask at home.
He said his public secondary schools are still waiting for more rapid antigen tests. Johnson said rapid antigen tests for all of the schools in the St. Clair Catholic District School Board went home on Thursday.
