Hamilton's Catholic school board delays start of virtual school due to power outage
Virtual school will start on Wednesday at 9 a.m. due to delayed system updates
Monday's power outage in a wide area of the city has forced Hamilton's Catholic school board to push back the start of virtual schools by one day.
In a letter to families posted online, Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board says system updates have been delayed, which means the virtual school will start on Wednesday at 9 a.m.
"The result of this has been that families have not been notified of their child's teacher. We are working hard to correct this problem. We appreciate that many of you have tried to contact us as you have not heard from your child's teacher. Please be aware that this situation should be remedied in the next day," reads the letter.
"We appreciate the eagerness of children to start school and we have to apologize for this unavoidable delay."
Another reason for the delay is to help coordinate all the new students who just enrolled into the virtual school. Both the public and Catholic boards have seen an uptick in people choosing online options since the end of August.
The Catholic board says all students should have been assigned a classroom by Monday evening and should login with the same username and password they used before to access myClass.
New Kindergarten students will receive their username and password on Tuesday.
The power outage forced HWCDSB to close three schools on Monday.
The public board announced earlier this week it would delay its virtual schooling.
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board added 80 new classes to its virtual school due to a large uptick in students opting at the last minute to online learning, which has prompted it to hire more than 90 new educators.
"We are confident that we will continue to start on time ... [but] as we continue to hire staff, however, some students will have their start further delayed," reads a notice from HWDSB on Monday.
"If you are not contacted today, then a teacher will contact you on Wednesday. Your child's half-day session will be on Thursday, and their first full day will be on Friday. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate the understanding as the new staff hired will need time to prepare for their new remote assignment."
There may also be delays to online French immersion.