Windsor school boards hesitant to use 'rainy day' reserve funding for COVID-19

The region's public and Catholic school boards say their reserve funds are supposed to cover "rainy days" and dipping into them for pandemic safety purposes could put them at risk. 

On Thursday, Ontario's Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced $500 million in funding to enhance physical distancing and improve air quality in schools. 

The half a billion dollars in funding comes after the ministry allowed school boards to dip into reserve funds. Boards that do not have reserves will be provided with funding from an $11 million allocation. 

"I understand the logic in it but it does really take money from us that we have saved for another rainy day...when things go down you really do need to be able to have funds in your back pocket," said Erin Kelly, the director of education for the Greater Essex County District School Board. 

Windsor-Essex Catholic School Board director of education Terry Lyons echoed Kelly's statement, saying there are challenges with using reserve funds.  

"Then you have nothing left if you ever have a year where you're going to have trouble or have expenses that aren't going to be covered, so there's some challenges there," he said. 

The province's education minister also announced an additional $50 million for upgrades to ventilation systems and $18 million for online learning amid concerns over student safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I think that we have good ventilation in many of our buildings but I mean some things probably do need to be upgraded," Kelly said, adding that they'll do their best with the tight timelines they have. 

During the school board's meeting on Friday, Kelly said they also discussed staggered entry, staffing to accommodate reduced class sizes and creating a virtual school. 

"You try to combine all that and then balance things as well as get schools ready with health and safety protocols...it's going to be a very big challenge," she said. 

Meanwhile, Lyons said the Catholic board already increased filtering efficiency in their schools and has decided to change their air filters every month. The board, he added, is performing a needs assessment to see what they need to prioritize. 

School boards extend decision date for parents

Both school boards have extended the date to Aug. 21 for when parents are required to confirm whether their child will be attending classes in-person or online. 

"We may extend it again because we recognize parents need to make decisions around that," Kelly said, adding that they are also going to be providing more information on what online learning will look like. 

But the Catholic school board has yet to release a final return to school plan. 

Lyons said they were hoping to release the plan Thursday, but because of the province's announcement they are adjusting it and will release it by next Wednesday — giving parents two days to decide. 

"We've been working on this plan and the ground's been shifting beneath our feet for quite a while now," he said. 

Public board releases 'outbreak' strategy in updated back-to-school plan

On Friday, the public school board also updated its back to school plan by including an outbreak strategy, which they say was approved by the Windsor Essex County Health Unit.

The plan involves having the person who is ill stay in a designated isolation room at the school until the health unit and the child's parents are contacted. 

Each school will have an "isolation kit" that includes personal protective equipment, which will be used by the staff member who is providing first aid to the sick child. 

Once the child goes home, spaces will be sanitized and the staff member providing first aid will be directed to get tested. 

If the child ends up testing positive for COVID-19, the health unit will perform contact tracing.