Learning schedules from Monday onwards have been detailed by both Durham District school Board (DDSB) and Kawartha Pine Ridge District school Board (KPRDSB).
DDSB said should the CUPE labour disruption continue next week, all DDSB schools will remain closed to in-person learning.
Elementary Students (excluding DDSB@Home)
In the afternoon on Monday, November 7, educators will be connecting with their classrooms virtually to begin live virtual learning. Elementary schools will require the time in the morning to have staff meetings and organize timetables in order to ensure that they can effectively support their class.
Beginning Tuesday, and in accordance with provincial direction, all kindergarten students should receive 180 minutes of live instruction per day and students in Grades 1-8 should receive 225 minutes of live instruction per day. Teachers will share a schedule for learning throughout the week.
“We do recognize that the number of live instructional minutes required for students in Grades K-3 may be too lengthy for the age group and educators will work with families to reduce screen time,” said a DDSB statement.
Secondary Students (excluding DDSB@Home)
On Monday, November 7, secondary students should sign into their Google Classroom at the start of their school day. Secondary educators will be holding live learning for the first 30 minutes of each period on Monday. Beginning on Tuesday, secondary students will receive 60 minutes of live virtual instruction for each class.
“We have directed staff to be flexible in terms of expectations for students as we recognize not all families will have the same access to the internet and that in some families, older siblings may be assisting with childcare during this period,” DDSB said.
It said it does not have the staff or the surplus equipment to effectively distribute technology to all students in Grades K-6 who may require it. “We know that this may be a challenge for some families and your child’s educator will do their best to support your child. This is an evolving situation and therefore should this approach change, we will follow up with families to determine what level of support may be required”.
Special Education Classes: Without Educational Assistant support, live virtual learning will not look the same as it did in the past periods of remote learning. However, educators will be communicating directly with families to provide more information on the support and learning that will be provided.
At this stage the DDSB said it does not know how long this labour disruption will last. “We are working to ensure that students are supported as much as possible during this time. We will continue to update families on our plans to support student learning if the labour disruption continues and schools remain closed to in-person learning as a result”.
KPR to update any change in status
KPRDSB yesterday confirmed that KPR schools will remain closed to students throughout the province-wide full withdrawal of service by Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
“As we have shared, without our CUPE staff, we are unable to ensure our schools would be safe for students. As a result, schools will be CLOSED ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2022. We will continue to monitor the situation and will provide an update if there is any change to this status,” said a statement.
Student Learning: As part of our ongoing planning, teachers will continue to provide remote asynchronous learning opportunities for students. Work will be shared through regular communication platforms like Edsby, Google, D2L.
Student tasks will be a continuation of the learning that is ongoing in the classroom/subject area. These assigned tasks will be completed by students at their own pace.
As schools become aware of individual family technology needs, we will seek to address those as best we are able.
For students enrolled in our virtual schools, programming will proceed as usual, said the KPR statement.
Child care centres will remain open. Before and after school programs, early years centres and facility partner programs will be closed.
All school permits are cancelled until further notice, said the statement by Rita Russo, Director of Education.