Windsor-Essex parents awaiting announcement on schools reopening

Many Windsor-Essex parents are eager to learn whether their children can return to schoolsfor the first time since December.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce is expected to make an announcement Wednesday on whenstudents in large centres can return to in-class learning.

"Yeah,if they think it's safe for them to go back, it's good. My son would love to go back to class," said Gurpreet Jammu, whose son attends Grade One at St. Joseph's Catholic Elementary school in River Canard.

Fulvio Valentinis, chair of the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, saidparents and teachers are looking forward to returning to class. He saidhis board is ready.

"We've learned to be prepared, to be able to pivot, to be able to move from one delivery model to another fairly, fairly quickly. So if the announcement is made, we will be ready," Valentinis said.

Catholic board parents still have the option to choose whether to send their kids back to class or to keep them at home learning virtually.

The parents in the public board aren't expected to have that option. The deadline to switch instructionfor the rest of the yearpassed on Jan.26.

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit shut down schools a week before the holiday break as COVID-19 cases in the region surged.

The province laterimplemented its own shutdown, which has since been lifted for some health units but not those in COVID-19 hotspots such as Toronto and Windsor.

Windsor-Essex has seen a dramatic decline in new cases, however. The number of active COVID-19 caseshas fallen by about 2,000 cases in two weeks.

'Everyone has been struggling'

Kristen Siapas,chair of the Greater Essex County Parent Involvement Committee, has four children learning at home.

She chose to keep them home. She saidmany parents do want to send their children back.

"I think the parents are really looking forward to this announcement so that we have a little bit of certainty. I know that everyone has been struggling right now to see what would happen next," Siapas said.

• Unknowns loom as educators left with questions about Ontario's school reopening plans

CBCWindsor asked parents on social mediahow they were feeling about a possible return to in-class learning.Nearly 300 people responded to a Facebook post on the issue.

"Locking everybody up inside isn't doing anything but making matters worse..these children need to go back to school," wrote Andrea Gizzi.

But others are in favour of online learning.

"Online learning teaches them to self advocate and ask for help when it's needed, it teaches them time management and what the real world will look like when they go to post secondary and get jobs," writes Lesa Rae Schroeder.

Health unit says data supports return to school

Dr. Wajid Ahmed, WECHU medical officer of health, said Tuesday that the data the region is seeing supports the reopening of schools. He is expected to present that data on Wednesday.

Erin Roy, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation District 9,whichrepresents public high school teachers, trusts his assessment.

But she saidthere are no new safety measures in place in the schools.

"We have had teachers that have been back since Jan.4. They have the exact same measures that they had in September. So there is no additional measures that we've seen on the ground," said Roy.

"One thing I know for sure that they have implemented is just basically a daily self-assessment that you have to prove now. So basically, you have to check more things. But that's no different than the self-assessment that we were doing before."

On Monday, Lecce said the province plans to expand COVID-19 testing for students and that it will allow school boards to bring in student teachers to fill supply roles as more schools reopen amid the second wave of the pandemic.

KariOlajoshas two children attending Gosfield North Public School. She opted to keep her children at home but wishes she had the option to change that.

"Ido wish there was an option to opt back in in the spring when people will be more outdoors and I am confident the cases will be lower," she said.

Premier Doug Ford has saidhe would like to get the students back in class by Feb.10. Valentinis saidthat's plenty of time to get ready.

The public school board in Windsor-Essex isn't commenting until it hears details in Wednesday'sannouncement.