TORONTO Health Minister Christine Elliot is acknowledging that her government is now “looking at all options” to curb the spread of COVID-19 including ones involving the public school system. Elliott made the comment to reporters during a news conference on Thursday morning, one day after the Ministry of Education sent a memo to all school boards in the province asking them to be prepared to switch to remote learning if it is deemed necessary. “It has always been important to us to keep our schools open because that is really important for students to learn and for their physical and mental health as well. Now we are seeing the numbers of cases rise tremendously and so we are looking at all options, including schools,” she said.
2 more TDSB schools shut down following COVID-19 investigations
by Michael Ranger
Last Updated Dec 15, 2020 at 3:34 pm EDT
Toronto District School Board building. (CITYNEWS/FILE)
Public health investigations into COVID-19 cases has now led to the shutdown of two more schools within the Toronto District School Board.
Toronto Public Health has advised the board to close Humber Summit Middle School, located in the area of Islington and Finch Avenues and Clairlea Public School in Scarborough.
The
TDSB COVID advisory page lists two infections among students and two infections among staff at Humber Summit. The page says three cases are resolved at the school.
TORONTO Secondary students with the York Catholic District School Board will be moved to remote learning only for the final three days of instruction before the holiday break. The board says that a “cohort flip” was scheduled to take place on Wednesday, meaning that students would begin attending in-person classes with a new cohort of classmates that they had previously been learning online with. The board, however, says that it has decided to begin the new cohort schedule remotely “so that students and staff will not be exposed to additional contacts prior to Christmas.” The change is not expected to impact instruction at YCDSB elementary schools.
York Catholic District School Board high schools switching to remote learning for 3 days
by News Staff
Last Updated Dec 14, 2020 at 5:14 pm EDT
All high schools in the York Catholic District School Board will be switching to remote learning for three days this week, Wednesday to Friday.
In a statement, the board tells CityNews that a “cohort flip” for the current quadmester was set to take place on Wednesday.
“At that time, secondary students [were to] begin attending in-person classes with a new cohort of students who they were previously learning with online,” they said.
However, since the change is taking place just days before the Christmas break and York region went into lockdown Monday, the board has decided to begin this new cohort schedule entirely remotely “so that students and staff will not be exposed to additional contacts prior to Christmas.”