Parents and teachers in Windsor-Essex are scrambling to prepare for a major shift in education next week.
The Windsor Essex County Health Unit announced Thursday afternoon that they were suspending all in-class teaching as of Monday, December 14, 2020 due to rapidly increasing case rates of COVID-19.
"We support the decision. Our teachers are preparing as much as they can for Monday," said Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario Local President Mario Spagnuolo.
The most recent data from the health unit shows a steady increase in cases among school-aged children since returning to school in September. Before September, only 3.9 per cent of cases were among children aged four to 17 and since September that number has climbed to 14.8 per cent.
Spagnuolo said the most significant challenge come Monday will be technological for both teachers and students.
Without any professional development days this year, many teachers have had to familiarize themselves with the online learning tools without any support from the Ministry of Education.
"The government has not been helpful in providing the professional resources and time to be prepared for a pivot like this. This is a huge pivot, it's not just one co-cohort or one school that's turning into virtual, it's the whole system," said Spagnuolo.
The Greater Essex County District School Board (found here) and the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board (found here) have a number of resources online to help parents troubleshoot potential technology issues while making the switch to online learning. Any parent who is having trouble with technology should call their school office for support.
Many families throughout the system have already had to make the switch to online learning. As of Friday, over 700 students from 25 local schools were already dismissed because of a case of COVID-19 among their school cohort.
To date, there have been four school outbreaks in Windsor-Essex. The largest outbreak at F.W. Begley Public School resulted in 49 cases among staff and students.
"Our members were anxious and continue to be anxious in our schools because they are seeing the numbers climb, especially when they hit triple digits this week, that was a huge red flag," said Spagnuolo. "Just the fact that it is entering the schools, there's no masking for kindergarten to Grade 3 that's required, so there are a few layers of protection that are missing. That we've been saying from the onset that we need to add more layers of safety."
While cases of COVID-19 are entering the schools, the data shows that the source of transmission for most of these cases was from a family member.
"What we are feeling based on our case rates is that we need an extra level of protection for these students," said Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed. "We made this decision based on our local data and our understanding of the local situation."
Spagnuolo said there is an understanding among teachers that they have to do what is best to protect their health and the health of their students.
"It's going to be a struggle but at the same time I try to encourage our members to look at it from a global perspective and say we're doing this for the betterment of our community and we need to all do it together and hopefully it makes a dent into these numbers," said Spagnuolo.
On Friday, the health unit reported an additional 111 cases in the region bringing the total number of active cases to 620.