21 students will be class average in Hamilton's public school board during COVID-19
Bobby Hristova | CBC News | Posted: September 1, 2020 1:08 AM | Last Updated: September 1, 2020
HWDSB director thinks average of 21 students can remain steady throughout school year
Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board says it will have an average of 21 students in elementary school classes when schools reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic — and that number could drop in October.
The board previously said there would be an average of 25 and 26 students in kindergarten and 24 and 25 students between Grades 4 to 8.
Those class size estimates were made assuming that every single student would attend class in-person.
The new average comes now that HWDSB knows exactly how many students are attending in-person classes and has $9 million from its reserve funds to add teachers to support students. Almost 20 per cent of students have opted for online learning and will be assigned to a virtul school.
"This is very good news," Stacey Zucker, associate director of support services said during a board meeting on Tuesday evening.
"Board staff worked over the entire weekend to do the reorganization for this school, to remove the remote students, to add the classes to the remote school and to add the additional classes approved by the board last week."
Here's more back-to-school coverage:
- Help CBC Hamilton's back-to-school coverage
- Hamilton schools begin massive reorganization as thousands opt for online learning
- Hamilton's Catholic school board releases plan for staggered start to school year
- Hamilton public school board pushes back start of classes
- Six Nations elementary schools to do remote and virtual learning for September and Oct
Despite some trustees still wanting to see class sizes drop to 15 students each, with Carole Paikin Miller saying the number still "wasn't low enough," most celebrated the lower average.
Manny Figueiredo, the board's director, said he is "confident" the average of 21 won't rise in October because staff can still be reassigned to different classes and schools, but can't make promises farther down the line in January or March.
That said, the number could shrink before it grows because the default option for students registering for school is to attend in-person.
"We have the opportunity at the end of September ... to take a snapshot of enrolment to where people have landed, so there will be some shuffling done, but we're confident by the default being in-person, if parents do choose remote in (late) September it actually could decrease our numbers even more," Figueiredo explained.
"Once parents have made their decision by the end of October, they're likely going to stick to it ... we'll see if the Ministry of Education gives us additional funding."
If there aren't enough empty spaces to accommodate a potential influx of students who want to do in-person learning, the board may use spaces like learning commons, learning resources rooms or other spots like gymnasiums.