THUNDER BAY – Students at most Thunder Bay Schools won’t be getting on the bus on Thursday morning to return to class after an extended holiday break.
Instead they’ll be donning a pair of slippers, turning on their laptops and other devices, and will head back to the virtual classroom, the Ontario government determining on Monday that a previously announced two-day halt on classroom learning wasn’t long enough.
Students are expected to remain at home until at least Jan. 17, though that deadline could be extended if the spread of the Omicron variant continues unabated in the District of Thunder Bay.
It’s not ideal, said Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board director of education, Pino Tassone, after school staff spent the past two days handing out devices to ensure no student was left behind.
Luckily it didn’t come as a huge surprise, he said.
“We anticipated this could happen before the break, so we were prepared. Obviously our preference would be for in-person learning. It’s just best for the kids and their learning engagement. We understand for the health and safety of our staff and our students that this is the direction the ministry of education would like us to go,” Tassone said.
A.J. Keene, the superintendent of education at Lakehead Public Schools, said the news was essentially expected, given the rising case counts across the province and word that other province’s had either extended the Christmas break or switched to virtual learning too.
“We weren’t surprised, but at the same time, when they came out with the first announcement last Thursday, we scrambled for three days to get ready to return to in-person. With all the case and contact managing changes at the health unit, we did a lot of work to get ready for something that hasn’t happened yet,” Keene said.
“Yesterday was about turning things around in just a few days.”
Keene said the two-week at-home session does have its benefits, despite not being the ideal learning environment.
“We can get more vaccinations and if a number of people do get the Omicron virus, that will work itself through and we’ll be able to open in a few weeks.”
Like the Catholic board, Public board school employees have been handing out electronic devices the past two days.
“The good news is in all of this is we did it last year, so we were poised to do it again,” Keene said.
Tassone said the pivot to on-line learning is putting some strain on available resources, with more students in need of more devices.
“We were scrambling to make sure we had enough computers to allocate, but we’re at the point where we’re ready to go,” Tassone said, adding he’s hopeful Jan. 17 will arrive and students will be back at school in person.
“I’m optimistic. I think the ministry has an appetite to go back. They do understand that that’s best for our kids, so we’re preparing for that. Obviously there will be some challenges when we go back. I worry about some of the changes in the health and safety measures. We’re worried about student absentees and we’re worried about staff shortages.”
