Windsor's F.W. Begley school to reopen following COVID-19 outbreak

F.W. Begley Public Schoolhas been cleared to reopen after a COVID-19 outbreak shut down the school for three weeks.

According to a letter to parentson the school board's website, the return is being staggered by class and grade level, with the first students to return on Wednesday.

An outbreak was declared at the school on Nov. 17 and the school was ordered closed immediately. In total, 49people 40 students and nine staff tested positive for COVID-19.

The closure affected 391 students who had been attending in-person classes, while 146 studentswere already learning remotely.

A statement from the board Monday said students will continue lessons at-home while they are waiting to return to school.

"For the safety of students and staff a deep cleaning has been completed and there will be acute attention to prevention protocols as well as additional training for staff," reads the statement.

Teachers' union calls for changes

Mario Spagnuolo, local president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, said teachers returned to the classroom to teach virtually on Monday.

"Obviously there's a lot of anxiety and apprehension about going back into the building where there was such a large outbreak," he said, adding that he would have liked to see rapid testing available to staff and students on their return, and more support for mental health and well-being.

"This had a huge impact on them from a psychological point of view," he said.

A spokesperson for the school board said that the employee assistance programand other resources for staff are available, and resources have been created especially for Begley students upon their return.

"They focus on safety, feeling part of the school again, feelings, skills and strategies to address their feelings," Greater Essex County District School Board spokespersonScott Scantlebury said in a statement.

The union, Spagnuolo said, wants to see changes to the province's schoolguidelines, noting that it was under those rules that the outbreak occurred.

"They are going to be more vigilant in the self-assessments at the beginning of the day but other than that, the class sizes will be the same, the physical distancing will be the same, and what we've said from the onset is that these need to be addressed," he said.

He's also calling on the school board to implement mandatory mask wearing for Kindergarten to Grade 3 students, a topic he saidwillbe debated by school board trustees.

A second school in the region that was also shut down due to an outbreak, W. J.Langlois Catholic Elementary School, reopened Monday morning.