Northeastern Ont. students head back to school in a delta-variant world

It's a busy morning in the Banton family home, as breakfast hits the table amidst feelingsof excitement and nervousness. Sept. 7 marks the start of a new school year in a new city for children Robert Leeand Arabella, but the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic brings its own challenges into the mix.

The family moved to Sudbury from Woodstock, Ont. in mid-August to be closer to Ashleyanne Banton'sfamily;Chris Banton's employer permitted the relocation. The children are packing for school among an array of unpacked boxes from the move. Some 65 boxes are full of books for the family's library alone.

Ashleyanne Banton says her daughter Arabella is excited to meet people at her new school, even though there will still be strict public health measures in place.

"She's never had a 'normal' school year. She doesn't even know what that means yet," Banton says.

She says both of her children struggled with remaining focused and retaining concepts in the online classroom.

"I couldn't stand to see the look of, just, defeat, and every other negative emotion you can think of, when they were online," Banton says.

The distance learning system has had deeper impacts on her son, Robert Lee. He has become much more anxious over the past school year; the family's recent move hasn't helped those feelings.

Banton says she and her husband regularly try to reassure Robert Lee. They say they're candid about their own emotional struggles with adapting to a new environment, as a way to bridgetheir experiences.

They also enrolled Robert Leeinto a back-to-school readiness workshop last week. Banton says the workshop is "just to give him some strategies that, if he is feeling anxious at school or not wanting to approach kids, maybe just give him that reassurance that, you know, I'm not in this alone."

Around the time of the first pandemic-related school disruptions, Banton received a breast cancer diagnosis. She says chemotherapy treatments sapped her of her energy to support her children in online learning and she partnered with families in their former community to help share the burden.

Boards work to improve health measures

Banton has had a unique view on education during the pandemic, as both a parent and a school supervisor. Those duties have been on hold during her chemotherapy treatments but she's planning on restarting this fall at her children's new school.

At her old school, Banton saysgaps in communication were common. There were frequent changes to public health measures and school protocol as understandings of the virus evolved. Fortunately, she says, there were no confirmed COVID-19cases at that school.

Banton says she hopes school boards will have better communication and be better-versed in their internal health measures as classes resume.

School boards have been working with the Ontario government to improve crucial infrastructure, notably ventilation, to help keep kids safer in classrooms. The governments of Canada and Ontario have invested $600 million into school ventilation this year, with the bulk of that sum coming from Canada's COVID-19 Resilience Fund.

Bruce Bourget, Rainbow District School Board's new director of education, says the funding has helped his board to install "hundreds" of HEPA filters (high-efficiency filters that remove tiny particles from the air) in its schools.

At District School Board Ontario North East, Education Director Lesleigh Dye says the fund has supported ventilation upgrades at 96 per cent of its schools. That board received $14.7 million through the ventilation fund.

Boards focusing on complete student experience

Dye says this year's adaptations go beyond physical safety improvements. They're focused on re-creating extracurricular activities like sports and clubs in a way that's both COVID-safe and fulfilling for students.

The status of extracurricular activities was among the most-asked questions from parents at back-to-school information sessions earlier this summer, Dye says. Classes at her board began last Thursday.

"We are going to be able to offer those in a very intentional manner so that our students and our staff are safe," she says.

Bourget says both the education ministry and public health officials have green-lit sports for this fall, and the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations, which organizes inter-school sporting events across the province, is planning to host tournaments once again.

The Rainbow board is finalizing its protocols around those activities.

"Our full sports will be offered for those who are interested, and certainly where we have coaches available. So I know we have students looking forward to that," Bourget says.

He says several non-athletic extracurricular activities will go ahead as well, such as student parliament and drama clubs.

Most students say they're excited to return to the classroom

In front of Westmount Avenue Public School, students are reconnecting with old classmates and saying goodbye to their parents, and their summer holidays. As her children come off the school bus, Banton wishes them a final goodbye as they head into the building.

CBC News spoke with several children as back-to-school drew near. Most say they're eager to get back into routines, see their friends and rejoin clubs and sports teams, but the pandemic remains on many students' minds.

"It's definitely different because of the masks, but I think it'll be just as fine because I'll still make friends with other people. I don't think it'll be that hard," says Jacob Penner in Sudbury, who's starting high school this year.

Jake Maybee, in Sudbury, is expecting a similar feeling to last September, but he's holding onto hope that schools will remain open for more of the year.

"I think we're still going to have to wear masks for the whole year and stuff. It's going to be tough, but I think we're going to be in person for longer than we were last time," the Grade 8 student says.

Parents want more supports for struggling kids

Parents still have questions about the long-term impacts of virtual learning and how their children will be able to get personal support as they re-integrate into in-person classes.

"Are the schools equipped to deal with this big transition back to in-person learning with half these children having mental difficulties, loneliness, you name it?" says parent Michelle Lamothe, whose children will be returning to in-person learning this fall.

Her five-year-old child caught COVID-19 in January. While the virus did not spread among the family, her other children are nervous about heading back to the classroom and picking up the disease.

Lamothe says several friends have chosen to keep their children home this year, but she says her children struggled too muchwith the virtual format to try it again.

She is also trying to re-enter the workforce to better support the family, something she could not easily do when supporting her children at home. She says the return to in-class learning is welcome, but one question remains front-of-mind: how long can this last?

"I'm extremely nervous and don't have high hopes that they will make two, three months with the way the [case] numbers are going and the positivity rate increases," Lamothe says.

Bourget, the education director at the Rainbow board, says he understands that this will be another challenging year in many respects. However, he says his staff are eager to welcome back their students this fall.

"There's no playbook for a pandemic in these times, in the current school situation, and we certainly have learned so much. So I think we all want to applaud everybody's efforts in that regard because we continue to evolve and learn new things," he says.