Specifics lacking in back-to-school plan, Waterloo region teachers' union says

The province's back-to-school plan is an OK start, but it needs to fill in the gaps when it comes to specific details for a return to the classroom, the vice president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario Waterloo Region says. 

"There's a lot of: So what does that actually look like in practice? What are the specifics? And that's what's lacking at this point. And we're just, you know, over a month away," Jeff Pelich said in an interview on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition on Wednesday.

The province's chief medical officer of health said during a media briefing on Tuesday that he wants to see schools open, and remain open, this upcoming school year.

Dr. Kieran Moore said the province will do their "utmost to keep schools open."

He says there will be a multi-layered approach to safety, including students and staff wearing masks, screening themselves for symptoms, being tested when needed, ensuring good hand hygiene and physical distancing.

"I think we have to normalize COVID-19 for schools and have an approach that's prudent and cautious but that realizes that we're going to have a rise in cases, but we're going to adhere to the best practices to minimize the spread and to keep our community safe," Moore said. "We must maintain them open going forward."

Back in class safely

Pelich said he appreciated what Moore had to say.

"I think teachers, overall, definitely agree with what he's saying," Pelich 

He said educators also all agree in-class learning is the best place for students to learn.

"The challenge is, everything that he was talking about sounds great, but the actual plan that was released by the government doesn't necessarily reflect everything that he was saying," Pelich said.

Pelich says teachers want to be back in the classroom, but they want to ensure it's safe to do that. He said there's been no assurance that ventilation in schools is adequate. The union would like to see more testing.

As well, he says the province needs to lay out more specifics around isolation procedures when students or educators do have COVID-19 and they'd like to see some kind of mechanism to prove students are doing self screening for symptoms before they go to class — not just "hoping" they've done it.

LISTEN: Jeff Pelich of ETFO Waterloo Region on province's back-to-school plan:

WRDSB reviewing plan

The Waterloo Region District School Board put a brief note up on its website Tuesday after the provincial plan was released to say staff are reviewing the plan and "we will be sharing details for how this will affect … students and families in the coming days."

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board did not immediately post about the new plan, but did remind students on Twitter there are pop-up hockey hub-style vaccination clinics at local high schools to help students get their first and second doses over the next two weeks.

Last week, when asked what she would like to see in a provincial back-to-school plan, the region's medical officer of health said she anticipated seeing the multi-layered approach including masks, hand hygiene and physical distancing.

Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang said she would like to see vaccination rates hit 90 per cent in the community to protect those people — including students aged 11 and under — who cannot get the vaccine, especially as the delta variant continues to circulate in the community.

"What we're seeing is spread among mostly unimmunized individuals and often times this is very frequent, they're in families that are mostly unimmunized and it spreads to the whole family," Wang said Friday.