Lakehead Public Schools to offer virtual school option starting in September

Students in Thunder Bay, Ont., public schools will have the option to attend class virtually during the upcoming school year.

Lakehead Public Schools said Wednesday it's offering virtual classes as a response to the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, but in-person classes will still be available.

"It's based on the fact that we've heard pretty loud and clearly from the Ministry of Education that they want us to start the 21-22 school year the way that this one is finishing in terms of pandemic protocols and supports," AJ Keene, a board superintendent of education, said Wednesday.

"They said you can anticipate that there will be pandemic protocols in place, which will very, very likely include a virtual learning option for parents."

Under the new plan, both elementary and high school students who choose to enrol in virtual classes in September 2021 would have the option to shift to in-person learning in January 2022 for the remainder of the year.

Parents and students don't have much time to decide, however, as the board is asking anyone who wants to enrol in virtual learning for the 2021-2022 school year to complete a registration form this month.

The form will only be available for one week, from 8 a.m. on Friday, April 16 to midnight on Friday, April 23.

Keene said while requiring a decision so soon is a challenge for parents, it's necessary for the board to prepare.

"Our staffing process is set based on collective agreements with our different unions," he said. "It takes a long time to assign staff to schools based on projected enrolments."

"And we know that it's really difficult on kids in September when we have to pull a teacher from a school, and merge classes and shuffle things around," Keene said. "Asking parents to commit right now is difficult, we know, but we're hoping that parents will consider a number of things."

"Our schools are going to be safer places in September, because we know the vaccine is rolling out and we anticipate that all our staff will be vaccinated," he said. "We're hopeful by that time we'll have a vaccine that works on kids, and that will start to roll out as well."

Keene said the board hopes most parents will choose in-person learning, but anyone with concerns about COVID-19 will have the virtual learning option.

However, if a parent chooses to enrol their student in virtual learning, there won't likely be an opportunity to change that decision before the school year begins, Keene said.

"If we're told that we won't require a virtual learning option, then we would dissolve the school and everybody would go back to their home schools," he said. "It would be very, very difficult to start moving dozens or hundreds of kids in and out of schools in September. It's exactly why we want to go through the process right now."

The full letter from the board, with more details about how virtual learning will work, is available on the board's website.