School boards adjust for increase in online learners due to Omicron

As students in northern areas of Ontario begin the second half of their school year, more have decided to move to remote learning.

For schools in the Rainbow District School Board, parents and students had until Jan. 20to decide if they would choose in-person or remote learning. The English public board covers schools in Sudbury, Espanola and Manitoulin.

Their online numbers have almost doubled since September.

"I think given the fact that we had a new [COVID-19] variant, that there are more cases; there was some paradigm shifts in how things were being handled provincially, in terms of case and contact management; it left many people adjusting to the paradigm," said Bruce Bourget, director of education.

"[Parents] made some decisions based on what they thought was best for their child."

Bourget said670 elementary students (7.3 per cent of all students) with the Rainbow District School Board are currently learning remotely, compared to 372 (4.1 per cent) in September.

For secondary school, 325 students (7.7 per cent) are learning online compared to 157 (3.4 per cent) in September.

Bourget saidremote learning for the Rainbow District School Board means students are with a dedicated remote learning teacher all school day. There are no hybrid or blended classrooms.

To accommodate the extra online students, Bourgetsaid, 12 teachers were moved from in-person teaching to online classrooms.

"We're very grateful for their flexibility and understanding during these challenging times," he said.

Bourget said is hoping for some sort of normalcy for the remainder of the school years, and is grateful for the hard work and resiliency of students and staff to overcome challenges due to the pandemic.

"It really is a time that we all have to come together and exercise a lot of patience and work hard to overcome some of these challenges, but there are certainly better days ahead."

English public schools in Algoma

The Algoma District School Board covers English public elementary and secondary schools in Sault Ste Marie, Wawa, Elliot Lake, Blind River and Chapleau.

It operates in a hybrid model, offering both in-person and online learning for the same classroom, with the same teacher.

"We have some flexibility and fluidity in that type of learning," said Marcy Bell, superintendent of education.

Secondary students had to give their choice of mode of learning by this past Monday when the new semester began.

Bell said parents of elementary students have until March break to decide how their child will access their classroom for the remainder of the school year.

"I think the delay has been a good decision for us, so that parents have that flexibility," she said, "as we were working through the month of January with the Omicron variant and the transmissibility."

Bell saidabout six per cent of the elementary student population in the Algoma board are learning online,a slight increase from September. About four per cent of the board's secondary students are learning remotely, compared to two per cent last fall.

"It's been an increase, however, it's not significant and we see that those families are indicating they're going to come back to in-person [learning], even prior to March break."

Bell said the percentage for secondary students who decided to learn remotely has dropped slightly to four per cent, compared to September numbers.

Because students learning remotely are tied to their home classrooms, Bell said, the increase to online numbers does not affect staffing levels due to the board's hybrid model.

In an email toCBC News, a spokesperson for Conseil scolairepublic du Grand Nord de l'Ontariosaid they currently have 72 students learning remotely, compared to 45 in September.

Lesleigh Dye, director of education for the District School Board Ontario North East (DSB1), said in a statement that the board informed families of a one-time opportunity to move from in-person to remote learning. But families had to request the change before Jan. 17.

"Families can choose to return to in-person from remote learning at any time for the remainder of the school year," the statement said."This flexibility during an uncertain time was appreciated by families."

DSB1 could not provide specificdata on how many students are currently learning remotely.

All school boards are awaiting direction from the Ontario Ministry of Education on whether online or remote learning will be an option for September.