Parents 'reeling' from quick decision to close schools in Windsor-Essex

Parents in Windsor-Essex are reeling from the news that schools are closing Monday due to the escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic, one advocate says.

Kristen Siapas, chair of the parent involvement committee for the Greater Essex County District School Board, said while recently there's been a lot of talk about the region's potential switch from the red zone to a full lockdown, parents may not have been expecting schools to shut down as well.

"I don't know if parents were really planning for this," she told host Tony Doucette on CBC Radio's Windsor Morning. "I think that a lot of parents were depending on the fact that schools would be still open."

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit has ordered all 114 schools to close starting on Monday, with students transitioning to online learning.

The move was announced Thursday afternoon, giving families just a few days to figure out childcare.

It came on the same day that the region reported 104 cases of COVID-19, bringing the number of active cases in the region past 600.

There are currently two school outbreaks, 25 active cases within the public school board and 11 cases within the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board. Nearly 50 cases were reported at F.W. Begley Public School but they are no longer considered active.

The order is effective until Dec. 18, the day classes end for the holidays, but it could be extended.

During the health unit's update on the pandemic Friday, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Wajid Ahmed presented data showing school-aged children made up 3.9 per cent of COVID-19 cases prior to schools reopening, and 14.8 per cent after school started.

He also defended the decision to close school facilities even though the majority of cases among students were acquired through household contacts.

"If your community is doing poorly, if your community case rates are high, you will see cases in the school. And then you will see all this disruption and at any time those cases can turn into an outbreak," he said.

Parents 'exhausted'

It's going to be a big transition, but Siapas said she has faith in teachers and feels the public board is prepared.

"It's going to be a very difficult time for teachers to try to navigate the virtual space all at once, but I don't think that it is a scramble," she said.

Since it's the week before the holiday break, parents may just call it a wash rather than "jump through all the hoops" of transitioning to online learning, she said. At this stage, with the pandemic in its 10th month, many are simply exhausted.

"There's a lot of people who are saying, you know, this is just too much. It's going to be enough for me to try to figure out childcare for my kids," she said.

The English-language public school board was "somewhat surprised" by the announcement, according to spokesperson Scott Scantlebury.

"We were very prepared. We had a contingency plan in place and quite quickly once we learned the announcement was going to be made, we got into our contingency plan and started to work," he told CBC News. 

According to the director of education at the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, the closures were "not anticipated necessarily, but understood.

Terry Lyons told CBC News the board did not receive notice ahead of time, and was "surprised" by the order.  

"We've been scrambling quite a bit today," he said Thursday. "They talked about how we're going to communicate this out, what sort of resources we need to make this happen and what we can do to get our system ready to make sure that we have everything possible for our students and community as we move forward into this next stage." 

Mario Spagnuolo, local president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, said teachers support the decision to close schools, though it's a difficult and challenging one given the impact on working families.

"Teachers were working tirelessly last night and they will be today and throughout the weekend to be prepared for Monday," he said on Windsor Morning.

"It's something that we knew would eventually happen ... but you're never necessarily ready for it because there wasn't a lot of time given to prepare" he said.

Boards work to accommodate teachers, students

Superintendent of education for the Greater Essex County District School Board Sharon Pyke told CBC News that between Thursday and Friday, the board has provided 2,500 devices to families needing technology. 

For those still needing a  device, Pyke said they should contact their school. 

She said between this and prepping teachers, everyone has been ready to pivot to online learning. 

"We've been planning for this for several months ... and getting all of the pieces together," she said, adding that they have "prepared both physically and mentally to pivot to online learning." 

Any families or students needing additional support can call the school where, she says, there are support staff prepared to help. 

"Five days seems like a short amount of time, a lot of prep work to get to that, but then once we've done it we've done it," she said, adding that if they have to pivot again they'll be ready. 

The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board said Friday that it will consider accommodation requests for employees who are unable to go to their work sites next week because of child care. 

This includes helping those who need to work from home or change their shifts if they cannot find childcare when schools close on Monday. 

"I want our employees to know that we remain committed to being flexible and supporting them in every possible way so they may continue to provide our students and their families with the quality education they deserve," director of education for the board Terry Lyons said in a statement.

Staff members not dealing with child care issues are expected to report to their school locations and continue with their duties, the statement continues to read.