Ontario’s school reopening plans will be revealed ‘in the next day or two,’ Doug Ford says
The Toronto Star – May 31, 2021
Premier Doug Ford says a decision about whether to allow students and teachers to resume in-person classes for the last month of school will soon be announced.
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Dr. De Villa responds to Ford’s letter regarding reopening schools
680 News – May 28, 2021
Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health responded to Premier Ford’s letter on the potential reopening of schools saying Toronto Public Health (TPH) supports reopening in-person learning before other restrictions are lifted.
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Ford awaits response from dozens of experts, stakeholders before deciding on schools
680 News – May 28, 2021
Health and education stakeholders in Ontario have been asked to respond to a letter from the premier, seeking advice on the potential reopening of schools.
In the letter, the Premier posed seven questions to doctors, scientists, and educators saying he expects to gather their responses by 5:00 p.m. on Friday before his government can ultimately reach a decision.
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Ford awaits response from dozens of experts, stakeholders before deciding on schools
The Canadian Press – May 28, 2021
TORONTO – Public health experts, school boards and teachers’ unions weighed in Friday as Ontario residents waited on tenterhooks for the premier’s last-minute decision on whether to reopen schools for the final month of the academic year.
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Laurier, local school boards partner to offer educators French teaching qualifications
The Expositor – May 28, 2021
Finding enough qualified French teachers to meet the needs of Ontario’s elementary and secondary students continues to be a challenge for many school boards.
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Ontario teacher unions tell Ford to heed experts on school reopening
insauga.com – May 28, 2021
Ontario’s teacher unions have told Premier Doug Ford that deciding whether schools can safely reopen in June is not a question they should have to answer — and that a consensus on whether to do so cannot be formed in just over one day.
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Top public health officials in Toronto, Peel, York support return to to school as early as next week
Newstalk 610 – May 28, 2021
The medical officers of health for Toronto, Peel Region and York Region say they would support the resumption of in-person learning.
Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s medical officer of health, wrote a letter to Premier Doug Ford Friday stating that she would prefer the return of in-person learning before other COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
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Never have the words ‘back to school’ been so loaded
The Toronto Star – May 28, 2021
As Ontario children dream of being back with classmates in person, parents, teachers and school boards are wrestling with mixed emotions. What should schools look like after a global pandemic?
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Decision on reopening Ontario schools will take more time, ‘supercautious’ Doug Ford says
The Toronto Star – May 28, 2021
A defensive Premier Doug Ford insists he’s not “afraid” to make a decision on reopening schools.
Amid accusations of dithering about something that affects millions of Ontario students, parents and teachers, Ford stressed Friday he was “going to be supercautious” before reversing closures triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Is it time to reopen schools? Behind the scenes, Doug Ford is uneasy amid conflicting advice
The Toronto Star – May 26, 2021
Is it safe for students and teachers to return to schools for in-class learning — yes or no?
That’s the thorny question Premier Doug Ford and his cabinet ministers are wrestling with amid conflicting pandemic advice.
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NDP MPP calls for halting plans for permanent online learning
680News.com – May 20, 2021
N.D.P. Member of Provincial Parliament and Official Opposition Education Critic Marit Stiles, as well as 76 Parent Committee Chairs from public school boards across Ontario, are calling on Premier Ford’s government to halt plans for permanent online learning.
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Public school board asks students how online learning is going
Blackburn News – May 20, 2021
The Ontario Public School Board Association wants to know how online learning is going for its students, so the public school board in Windsor-Essex is sharing a survey.
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Student Survey Regarding Online Learning
104.7 Heart FM – May 20, 2021
OXFORD COUNTY – The Thames Valley District School Board is asking students to do a voluntary survey for students in Grade 5-12 regarding online learning.
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Stress, fear and change: Student trustees’ report details pandemic learning experiences of Ontario students
Queen’s Park Briefing – May 20, 2021
“This past year has been excruciating. It’s [an] absolute pain to have to sit through 4–5 hours of hearing my screen talk to me,” wrote one Grade 11 student.
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‘So frustrating’: Halton District School Board trustees say Ontario online learning plan a step closer to privatization
InsideHalton.com – May 17, 2021
A proposal under consideration by the province to permanently embed online learning in the education system, and to partner with the publicly funded educational network TVO to deliver the programming, is facing stiff opposition among education stakeholders across Ontario.
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Eastern Ontario boards receive $972.6 million for 2021-22 school year
Cornwall Standard-Freeholder – May 6, 2021
School boards across the province — which includes the ones right here in Cornwall and SDG — will be receiving a total of $972.6 million for the 2021-22 school year, an overall increase of $18.1 million from the year prior, through the Grants for Student Needs (GSN) Program.
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Ontario boosts school funding for COVID-19 safety, mental health support and remedial reading and math
Ottawa Citizen – May 4, 2021
There’s no news yet on whether elementary and secondary students will return to in-person classes before the end of the year, but the provincial government will provide extra funding for schools next fall to help cope with COVID-19 and its fallout, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said Tuesday.
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Ontario school boards will have up to $1.6 billion to spend on COVID-19 costs for the next school year
The Toronto Star – May 4, 2021
The Ontario government says school boards will have up to $1.6 billion to help with COVID costs for the coming school year, including money from board reserves. But while providing details about the fall, Education Minister Stephen Lecce couldn’t say if kids would return for in-person classes before the end of June.
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