Everyone at the Thames Valley District School Board is very busy finding suitable workarounds and safety guidelines to ensure as healthy of a return to school as possible in the middle of a global pandemic.
The board has already announced that the first day of class has been pushed back a week, to September 14th.
Director of Education Mark Fisher says that the missed week won’t be added on to the end of the school year.
The idea behind the delayed start to the school year came as the board was advised by the ministry of health that their previously approved two courses per day schedule would exceed the 100 person contact per week threshold that boards are trying to follow.
The board decided to shift to one course per day, which involves revising over 25,000 students timetables, a consuming task.
As for what happens in the event of a positive COVID-19 case or a cluster of them, Fisher says they’ll immediately remove the source.
He adds that they prefer if high schoolers remain at school during lunch in lieu of walking home or taking a car to go somewhere to eat, but that is something they can’t stop students from doing.
