Parents will soon be able to retrieve the sweaters, boots, and pencil cases their kids left in school desks and cubbies when the institutions were ordered closed by the provincial government in March.
The Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) has announced it will allow for the collection of personal belongings from schools in June.
A plan has been put together to ensure physical distancing and public health recommendations are followed throughout the collection period.
“With almost 80,000 students and thousands of employees in 161 schools, retrieving personal belongings must be done in a careful manner that protects everyone’s health and safety,” TVDSB Director of Education Mark Fisher said in a statement. “Each school has received guidelines and will develop a plan to strictly control access and maintain proper hygiene and social distancing to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.”
Different safety measures have been crafted for those picking up personal belongings in elementary schools versus high schools.
Elementary teachers will return to the schools next week to package and label student belongings. The items will then be organized alphabetically for curbside pickup. The school board aims for the pickup to be as "contact-less" as possible and asks those arriving in vehicles to have their trunk unlocked to allow staff to place the items inside.
In secondary schools, students needing to clean out their lockers will be screened for symptoms at the door. They must bring a bag to carry the items out in. Staff will be on hand to ensure students are physically distancing while retrieving their belongings.
Only students with lockers will be allowed to enter the schools.
The board is asking parents and students to also use this time to drop off any loaned items such as textbooks, library materials and musical instruments. They can hang onto borrowed electronic equipment such as Chromebooks, as a separate collection date will be set for those items.
Families will be contacted by their school to arrange a pick-up time. The collection of belongings is expected to begin on June 8.
Teachers and other staff members will be able to take their belongings during the last week of June.
Schools in Ontario have been closed since students left for their spring break in mid-March. The closure, aimed at stopping the spread of COVID-19, was originally only scheduled to last for two weeks. After being extended a couple of times, the Ford government announced on May 19 the province’s publicly-funded schools would remain closed through the end of the current school year.
