Two Sudbury schools reopen, while two remain closed following COVID outbreaks
Teachers union would like to see schools closed automatically for 2 weeks after first positive test
The chair of Sudbury's English Catholic school board says schools have closed these past few weeks more because of staff shortages than a fear of COVID-19.
Michael Bellmore says he doesn't actually get to see a detailed breakdown of who has tested positive for the virus in their schools, or how it is spreading.
"As it relates to a person's person health information, that's protected by legislation," says the chair of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.
"That is why we don't have the details of a break-down between staff or student, who the actual COVID case is. So Public Health can't share that information with us based on the legislation that protects that personal health information."
Bellmore says St. David elementary was closed last week after 13 people tested positive and there wasn't enough staff to open the school safely. It is expected to re-open on Monday.
That is the same situation for St-Denis French Catholic school.
St. Pius XII elementary school and Marymount Academy were closed for two days this week also because of the large number of employees self-isolating at home.
Those schools reopened again on Wednesday, except for a handful of affected classes. That's the same at St. Charles College, where three people have tested positive for COVID.
Public Health Sudbury and District declared an outbreak at St Charles early Wednesday morning.
Bellmore's daughter is a student at Marymount and his grandson goes to St. David. He says both are anxious to get back to class and he feels most students thrive when they get to learn in a classroom.
"Whether it's right or wrong, I think we'll be parsing this as we go down the pipe ... were the right decisions made?" he says.
The union for English Catholic elementary teachers would like to see schools close immediately for two weeks once there is a positive COVID-19 case.
Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association local president Chantal Rancourt says she'd also like to see students kept two metres apart, as is the rule everywhere outside of school.
"Students are in classrooms of 20 to 30 students. They're eating together without masks on, several times a day. There's lot of people in the hallways," says Rancourt.
"Buses, right? In Sudbury, our students share buses so sometimes if there is a case on a bus you can have several schools impacted."
Rancourt says her union would also like to see targeted testing in schools where COVID-19 is confirmed, so asymptomatic carriers can be identified quickly.