There's a slight shift favouring online learning among high school students at the St. Clair Catholic District School Board.
Director of Education Deb Crawford said 50 students indicated by the October 22 deadline that they intend to switch to virtual learning while 25 have asked to return to the classroom.
There's the opposite trend at the elementary level with 30 students wanting to go online, and 60 moving to face-to-face learning.
Crawford said the shift at the secondary level will happen at the end of the first quadmester to help limit the disruption to staff and students.
"We'll try to do this in a gradual way at the elementary level so that it's not disruptive," said Crawford. "It certainly will not be disruptive to the whole system. I know many people have been reading the newspaper or hearing on the news about school boards that are shutting down and then re-organizing entirely for a couple of days and coming back. We're not doing that."
Crawford concedes there's been a big adjustment for students socially.
"We don't have extracurricular activities, but the schools are very vibrant," she said. "The kids are talking to each other, they do have social relationships in these classrooms. The schools are really working hard to make sure they're uplifting everyone's spirits. It's not perfect, it's not the way we all hoped it would be, but I think it's such an improvement over everyone being stuck in their homes."
The Lambton Kent District School Board expects to have its updated online, in-class numbers in the next couple of weeks.