Both local school boards are waiting for direction from the Ministry of Education as they make plans for asymptomatic COVID-19 testing of staff and students.
The provincial government mandated all boards must conduct tests at five per cent of its schools each week and test two per cent of students enrolled in in-person learning. The tests are completely voluntary for both staff and students.
Each school board will be assigned a testing vendor by the Ministry of Education. That vendor will be in charge of doing the tests and all the associated consent forms. Neither the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board or the Greater Essex County District School Board have been assigned a vendor.
"We will provide access to our staff and students and a venue, they will be the ones conducting the testing," said Superintendent of Education with the WECDSB Melissa Farrand. "The vendor will be the one requiring registration and consent forms and in the end we will report back to the ministry the results."
It still has not been determined when this testing will take place but the Catholic board indicated it would prefer for it to be outside of regular class time.
Both boards will be working together with the Windsor Essex County Health Unit to test in hot spot areas in the community.
"We want to ensure that when we do get our data that we are both addressing the hot spots," said Superintendent of Education with the GECDSB Sharon Pyke.
The testing will be for asymptomatic cases only, anyone with symptoms will still have to attend an assessment centre.
"I think it is important to encourage participation, again it is voluntary, however it does provide another layer of protection for our staff and our students," said Farrand.
The Ministry of Education indicated testing should start next week but plans are at a standstill as boards wait to be assigned a vendor.
