DAN CEARNS, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, for The Standard
KAWARTHA LAKES: The Trillium Lakelands District School Board (TLDSB) is returning to their old policy regarding snow days.
Starting in 2020, the board had been closing schools to in-person learning on days when school buses were cancelled due to snowy or icy weather.
At the time, Director of Education Wes Hahn explained this had to do with keeping students safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The normal procedure there, would be to take the kids that you have, maybe mix them with another class if their teacher couldn’t get in. The whole idea is getting a teacher in front of kids, and they would do their best to obviously keep the learning moving. But that would involve [the] mixing of cohorts of kids, and that is something public health is not supporting,” he explained, at the time.
However, the TLDSB announced, in a February 24th press release, addressed to parents, they will be returning to their “regular inclement weather procedure effective immediately.” Their reasoning, the press release explained, was because the provincial government is “planning to ease COVID-19 restrictions in the coming weeks.”
“For the remainder of the 2021-2022 school year on days where school transportation is cancelled due to inclement weather, schools within the affected region(s) of the Board will remain open,” the press release read.
“Parents/guardians will be responsible for transportation of their students who choose to attend school on inclement weather days. Drop-off and pick-up must occur in alignment with the regular school day start and end times. Students who remain at home on inclement weather days can access existing information on their online classroom, however, there will no longer be new materials assigned or online meetings scheduled with teachers on inclement weather days.”