Many students in Ottawa will return to school five days later than previously planned amid the COVID-19 pandemic, following a late-night vote by trustees of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB).
Trustees voted unanimously in favour of a Sept. 8 start for students at the city’s largest school board on Tuesday night.
The OCDSB will implement a staggered start after that date, with students returning to school on different days based on their grades over the following two weeks.
School had been planned to start at the beginning of the month, on Sept. 3 after two professional development days.
The board also considered moving the start date to Sept. 14, which would have aligned with the start of yellow bus service by the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority (OSTA). The bussing service announced at the start of the week it would need more time to implement routes and safety protocols to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
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While a later start date could have helped some rural families get their students to school in light of the school bus delay, staff noted that the setback could have affected the board’s ability to deliver a required number of instructional days in the school year.
On another topic of discussion — mandatory masks for the board’s youngest students — OCDSB trustees were not unanimous on the matter.
Trustee Lyra Evans had planned a motion that would have seen students in kindergarten through Grade 3 required to wear masks, barring any medical restrictions. Masks are mandatory for students in Ontario in Grade 4 and above.
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Ottawa Public Health wrote in its advice on the subject that while face coverings were likely beneficial in stemming the spread of the virus in this age group, the local public health unit needed more “experience” on the matter before it could say one way or another whether masks should be mandatory.
The motion was ultimately amended, changing the wording from “require” to “strongly recommend” masks for children in this age group.
Evans said this revision “completely undermined” the intent of the motion and “completely gutted” any enforceable language.
“Nobody at the end of a disaster ever says they prepared too much,” Evans said.
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