Board members now hope they can divert available funds to schools located in neighbourhoods that have been hardest hit by COVID-19.Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail
The Toronto District School Board will finalize its plans this week to have elementary students return to classrooms in the fall. Up for consideration is directing money into high-risk areas to hire more teachers and shrink class sizes.
The province had rejected the board’s initial proposal because it didn’t give students enough in-class instruction time.
Board members now hope they can divert available funds to schools located in neighbourhoods that have been hardest hit by COVID-19. Trustees are expected to pick one of three models outlining the use of reserve funds on Thursday, which will determine how many teachers will be available to help shrink those classes.
However, the new plan also means schools in other parts of the city might not see their classes downsized to allow for more physical distancing in schools. The plan could still need to be approved by the Ministry of Education.
The focus should be when and how, not whether school should resume
Canada’s back-to-school plans: The latest news, and resources on COVID-19 and your kids
At a press conference on Wednesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford defended his back-to-school plans. When asked why his government wasn’t committing extra funding to ensure class sizes could be widely reduced in Toronto and elsewhere, he said the government’s move to allow school boards to use their reserve funds to hire more teachers was enough.
At Tuesday’s board meeting, TDSB trustees also voted to make masks or face coverings mandatory for all students, including those between kindergarten and Grade 3.
Meanwhile, the City of Toronto has offered extra community centre space for classrooms. Toronto Mayor John Tory said it is imperative for the province, the school boards, public health and the city to work together to make sure parents have the clarity they need on what back-to-school will look like.
“You know, forgetting about the needs of the parents and all of that, the kids need to be in school for mental health, for socialization and for educational reasons,” Mr. Tory said. “And I think our objective all together collectively is to make sure they can get there safely.”
Teachers at the board are still waiting to find out what their days and class sizes will look like in the fall. They are also awaiting details about their first day of teaching, as the TDSB is now considering a staggered start of its first weeks of school. Many are concerned about physical distancing in classes that sometimes contain more than 30 children and in large schools where thousands of students enter their doors each day.
“We’re less than two weeks away and we have no direction one way or another,” said Ajmer Darawal, a Grade 2 teacher at Thorncliffe Park Public School in Toronto. “We don’t know about class sizes, when we can go in and set up our classrooms, what’s September going to look like, rules and regulations that are going to dictate [our] mobility, policy for entrance or exit. We have no information.”
Thorncliffe Park, located in Toronto’s East York area, is connected to the Fraser Mustard Early Learning Academy. Mr. Darawal said about 2,300 students and 1,000 parents arrived to the schools’ site every morning, prior to the pandemic.
“So 3,300 to 3,500 adults and children will congregate in one space for exit and entry,” Mr. Darawal added. “I don’t know any public setting, any hospital, any restaurant, any patio space that makes it acceptable.”
Laura McCoy, a teacher at Winona Drive Senior Public School in Toronto, also said she does not know what teaching in the fall will look like. But she knows that Grade 7 and 8 classes have no cap sizes, which means her students might not be able to physically distance from one another.
“The reality is that most regular classes have 30 to 32 students,” she said, “and that is what I’m facing going back in the fall, because the government hasn’t provided any funding for smaller classes.”
“What kind of a society are we that we can’t be spending the money in a global pandemic to look after our children?” Ms. McCoy asked. “That’s incredibly sad, and I’m incredibly frustrated.”
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