Increasing COVID-19 fears and anxiety might be getting the better of Thames Valley District school board (TVDSB) parents with hundreds making the last-minute decision to pull their child from in-person learning.
Updated figures from Southwestern Ontario’s largest school board released Tuesday night show over the last two weeks an additional 1,185 students have been switched from in-person learning to full-time remote learning. Those moving to online learning include 968 elementary students and 217 high school students.
Of the board's 81,500 students, 13,173 (16 per cent), will be learning from home, while 68,351 will be back in the classroom.
"While we recognize that some of these changes in learning models were required by families, this did delay our ability to finalize staffing based on the number of students who would be attending both in-person and in full remote learning," said Riley Culhane, the board's associate director of education.
Administration and support staff have been working extremely long hours to complete the "significant reorganization" needed by next week's start of school.
"We do have stories of administration staff being at schools until 2 a.m. restaffing and re-timetabling entire schools. So this does continue to be work we are committed to do, but a challenge for us to do," said Culhane.
The rise in those opting for at-home learning means an additional 317 elementary teachers had to be shifted to staff the full-remote learning model.
The board has also had requests for 4,039 computer devices for those learning remotely.
Students attending in-person will see smaller class sizes as a result of the 16 per cent learning remotely. The board stated average class sizes at all of its schools will be as follows: Kindergarten 21 students, Grades 1-3 approximately 17 students and Grades 4-8 approximately 22 students.
"We are sitting quite comfortable right now in terms of class size," said Jeffery Pratt, the board's associate director of education.
Secondary students will receive their timetables and find out which cohort they are in this Thursday.
The new school year begins on Monday with staggered starts across the board.
