While many parents and students are greeting with jubilation and relief the news that schools in Newmarket and York Region are reopening on Feb. 16, some local education activists are wary.
Schools in York, Toronto and Peel will return to in-person learning after the Family Day weekend, while schools in other areas of the province will reopen on Feb. 8, Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced at a news conference this afternoon.
Community transmission rates have declined to the point where the government, its advisors and local medical officers of health are comfortable reopening schools, Lecce said.
"We are reopening schools because we have, as a society, sacrificed and gotten the community transmission levels down and on a downward trend. Because of this collective sacrifice, we have gotten to a place where we can reopen," said Leece.
"We have really elevated and enhanced the measures and put in place the investments and expectations for students and staff as they enter the school. It gives us confidence that we can — as we did last fall — keep schools safe."
But local education advocate and Newmarket parent Shameela Hoosen-Shakeel doesn't share the government's confidence that the necessary steps have been taken to reopen schools safely.
"As a parent of kids in every level of the education system, I am most concerned with potential exposure to COVID-19 in classrooms with 20 to 30 kids and educators," said Hoosen-Shakeel, who has spoken out about the need for increased measures to keep students and staff safe throughout the pandemic as co-chair of York Communities for Public Education.
"With the new variant spreading in York Region, where three of my children attend school, it concerns me. What is the plan here?
"I'm worried about what happens at lunchtime when students take off their masks to eat and drink. Often, there are no teachers in the classrooms at that time. Lunch supervisors often find it challenging to enforce the rules."
Newmarket biostatistician Ryan Imgrund expressed exasperation on social media that the government once again said that it has found little evidence of community transmission in schools.
Despite ZERO evidence to back it up, Dr. Williams claims:
— Ryan Imgrund (@imgrund) February 3, 2021
1. We had NO cases of Covid acquired in schools. None.
2. Covid in schools is strictly from the community; and, once in the school, it stays in the school, isn’t passed on, & never re-enters the community.
This guy. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/bcmDY4PeRz
Hoosen-Shakeel said she wants to see class sizes capped at 15 students, especially when kids are eating and are not wearing masks. She also wants to see ventilation assessment and upgrades, comprehensive testing, a lower number of kids on buses, and masks for kindergarten students.
Lecce said that high school classes will be capped at 15 students per classroom, with school boards able to reduce class sizes for younger grades as well. The government is continuing to hire thousands of teachers to make smaller class sizes possible.
Assessments and upgrades of ventilation systems have gone ahead, said Lecce, and although kindergarten students are not required to wear masks, grades 1 to 3 students will be.
A voluntary testing regime is also in place, and the government is also providing $1.6 billion to schools to "help protect them against COVID-19."
Hoosen-Shakeel said she is unimpressed with dollar figures.
"I don't want to hear about how the government has spent money because we know that they have not spent nearly as much as they claim, and they are sitting on federal funding that could help."
When schools reopen, York Region's medical officer of health, Dr. Karim Kurji, will monitor the situation and will have the authority to shut down schools again or send cohorts home if cases increase.
