What the school boards in Waterloo region are doing to prepare for school and COVID-19 impacts on budgets

Educators are back in schools for training and students who have been at home for months will return to their classrooms soon. 

COVID-19 has impacted education and the way students will be taught this year, whether they opted for in-class learning or remote learning. has affected education like nothing ever before. To talk about the plans for this fall, Jayne Herring, chair of the Waterloo Region District School Board and Bill Conway, chair of the Waterloo Catholic District School Board, joined CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition host Craig Norris on Friday.

The interview is below, although it has been edited for length and clarity. You can listen to the full interview at the bottom of this article.

Craig Norris: I think the top question we've heard, and I've heard is … why does it seem like the schools are scrambling now? I mean, they had all summer to develop plans. What is your response to that? 

Jayne Herring: I can understand why people think that, to be honest, that's not what's happening behind the scenes. But I could see that that would be how it would appear.

It's actually, it is a controlled approach. So this September 8th is more complex than any September 8th that we've ever had, certainly in my recent memory. 

We were working away to the deadline of opening on September 8th. Our staff have been working literally days, nights, weekends, non-stop. And last weekend, despite the number of hours the staff have worked, we realized that we were not going to be able to meet the September 8th deadline. 

And there are a number of factors involved in that. And it was a very difficult, difficult decision to delay. You know, I think many of you heard [director of education] John Bryant and myself apologized to parents for the inconvenience and also for the stress that this has added. But we certainly really didn't have any choice. 

But, let's put a spin on it that we can absolutely believe that this is now a positive and that our staff feel supported and they had extra time to prepare. Our students are going to be able to make an even more safe return to school and we're going to be ready to welcome them back with open arms. 

Norris: And, Bill, what about the Catholic board? Is the experience similar there as to it Jayne's describing? 

Bill Conway: Yeah, I would certainly echo Jayne's comments. Staff has done a tremendous job working seven days a week since the direction came from the ministry in terms of the model we were going to open under. 

Of course, elementary, as is the conventional, and then the secondary as adapted. There's so many moving parts and there's so many things to consider and to implement, really. We're delivering education probably like we've never done before. Right? And both a mixture of in class and the virtual so it's just been a lot of work and a lot of a lot of things to consider.

But I think staff have done a tremendous job in order to get us to where we are and to be ready. 

It is a staggered start, but I mean, certainly in the interest of health and safety and making sure we've got everything in place. I think it's the prudent thing to do, is to stagger. And I know it is an inconvenience for parents, but I think in the long run, they'll appreciate [it]. 

Help from education ministry

Norris: So, Bill, you mentioned the ministry. What more do you need from the ministry? 

Conway: We're certainly ready for the beginning of school in terms of the health and safety and being prepared for our students' return. Certainly we've asked the minister to look at additional funding. I mean, we certainly appreciate all the funding that has been provided to our board.

But we certainly believe that it would be prudent to to continue that funding in order to get more teachers, to be able to lease or purchase more school buses to reduce the capacity of the bus … all in interest of reducing risk and increase in safety of having less students on the bus. Perhaps less students in class to maintain those distances for as long as this covid-19, you know, we're faced with it.

Norris: Jayne, would you say the same is true for the public board? 

Herring: Yeah, I would. I think that it's a good opportunity to say that the information from the ministry has been pretty fluid during the summer. I mean, it's changed on a dime on several times. And I think the public is very well aware of that as well. 

We just received last week our protocols around outbreak. And so we're still looking at that, we're still reviewing that with our local public health. We hope to have more information coming out soon to our families around that. So there is a letter from our minister on the website. 

I think we're sort of down to the wire now. We have most of the information that we need. And I think it's a matter of putting the plans in place. 

Impact on board budgets

Norris: Jayne, back in July, you wrote to Minister Lecce. You said the cost to reopen schools would be, you pegged $8 million. Does that number still seem accurate? 

Herring: Well, at the time it was accurate. I think, it's like everything was COVID. It's fluid. I mean, you think you know what you're talking about and then, you know, a new piece of information comes.

So at the time we said it was approximately $7.2 million and we did say that, we were very clear and that staff were very clear, that this number was subject to change.

I think recently our staff reported that the deficit this year will be approximately $17 million. And I would also like to say, too, that I don't believe that we've been properly funded. 

I have said that in both of my letters. I've said it on social media. I think that this government had an opportunity to provide us with a large amount of funding right at the outset. These last two pieces of funding that we've received have been appreciated. We will certainly always appreciate and welcome funding. 

But it was a hurry up offensive - and staff were already fully tasked with getting schools up and running. I think it created expectations amongst parents that we were able to quickly lower class sizes, which was not the truth. 

And so, yes, to get back to your answer, it did change. It's $17 million. The funds will be used for staffing and maintenance, remote learning, transportation, I mean, a myriad of things. And that amount is still evolving. 

Norris: So, Bill, does the Catholic board have any sense of how much reopening will cost? 

Conway: I probably don't have an exact figure, I mean, certainly at one point we were looking at $4 or $5 million ... that was our sort of deficit or shortfall.

But certainly some of the recent announcements, both from the provincial government and the federal government, certainly reduced that amount somewhat. Certainly staff would need more time and they'll certainly go back to the board and see where we're at in terms of … how much we have to dip into our reserves.

So obviously, that's something we don't want to do. Those reserves are built up over many years of hard work and then used for specific priorities to help our students. So our hope is certainly it'll be minimum dipping into the reserves. 

Finding more information

Norris: The two biggest issues that parents want to know about are safety and curriculum. And I would say probably right behind that would be scheduling. These are fundamentals that the parents are telling us that they're still confused about. Jayne, we'll start with you. Just if you can, what can you do to help parents get the information they need? 

Herring: Our website has all of our resources, we have an FAQ (frequently asked questions) site that is very comprehensive. Last night, an email went out to anybody who subscribes to our email talking about when students will actually find out what cohort they are in and when their schedules are being sent out. 

Any question you can think of is on our FAQ site. It is very comprehensive. I do also know that more information will be coming out this week from our board around COVID-19 and … our outbreak protocol, parents are very interested to hear about that. 

There is a letter from the minister on our website and a link to our outbreak document. All boards are required to place information about substate suspected or confirmed cases on our website, as well as the public health website. So we'll show parents where to go for that information. 

Norris: Lastly, over to you on this, Bill. What about you? What can you do to help parents get the info that they need right now? 

Conway: Yeah, similar to Jayne, I would say just continue to look at the website. We have a lot of people ask questions. Director [of education] Loretta Notten put together a 30-minute video that's on our website just to answer those questions that parents have. So I would say certainly continue to look for the website. And I know the individual schools are reaching out to parents too, all through the newswire on the specifics of their child. So I would say just be open to that information. 

And again, you should find and certainly ask questions. I mean, certainly reach out to specific schools if there's still things that you're within doubt.