The president of District 8 of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation says there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the opening of the school year in September.
Shane Restall said one concern teachers have is whether there will be enough room in their classes for students to social distance. He said some of their classes could have as many as 33 students and with that many students in a traditional classroom, it would be impossible to get two metres of distance between each of them.
Restall said there's also still a lot of uncertainty around the protocol in the event a staff member or a student becomes ill.
"What is the protocol as far as the class is concerned, does the class have to quarantine, does the entire school have to quarantine, students on the same bus, are they all have to stay home. What's the protocol there, that hasn't been shared with staff yet," said Restall.
Restall added that they had worked on a learning model with the board, which addressed the number of classes per day and had been approved by the ministry. However, that was rejected last week.
"Now Avon Maitland District School Board is scrambling to try and replace it with a new model. The ministry has said only one class per day and the students aren't allowed out of their classrooms at lunchtime unless they leave the building. So five hours of class with the same students and the same teacher, perhaps," added Restall.
Restall said they are hoping things will become clearer over the next few days but the board is waiting or information from the ministry.
Staff will be getting three days of training next week to help them prepare for the opening of school on September 8.
