3 more London, Ont. schools close to in-person learning due to COVID-19

The list of schools in the London, Ont., region that have cancelled in-person classes for the rest of the year due to COVID-19 continues to grow.

On Wednesday evening, the Thames Valley District School Board announced that Woodland Heights Public School and West Oaks Public School, both in London, would be closing as of Thursday.

The TVDSB also said that Hickson Central Public School in Hickson, just north of Woodstock, would close as well.

The London District Catholic School Board, meanwhile, announced it was closing Sir Arthur Carty Catholic Elementary School in London.

In all cases, the schools have said that the closures are the result of operational challenges posed by the number of staff and students required to quarantine. Due to the local presence of the Omicron variant, the Middlesex-London Health Unit is requiring all close contacts, regardless of vaccination status, to quarantine for 10 days after last exposure to an individual with COVID-19.

The schools join a list of local closures that includes the LDCSB’s Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School, St. Theresa Catholic Elementary School and Saint André Bessette Catholic Secondary School; the public board’s Westmount Public School and Princess Elizabeth Public School in London and Caradoc Public School in Mount Brydges; and the Conseil Scolaire Catholique Providence’s École Élémentaire Catholique Ste-Jeanne-d’Arc and École Élémentaire Catholique Saint-Jean-de-Brébeuf.

While the TVDSB and LDCSB have said that the schools are expected to reopen after the winter break when announcing the individual closures, messaging sent to parents, guardians and caregivers on Wednesday asked students to collect personal belongings before they leave school for the holidays just in case the province announces school closures in January.

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“We have not been given any direction that online learning is going to happen after the break, so our message is just more about being prepared,” said Vince Romeo, the director of education for LDCSB.

Mark Fisher, the director of education for the TVDSB, says the public board’s messaging is based on a recent surge in new cases of COVID-19 in the region, as well as the rise of the Omicron variant in Ontario.

“We’ve tried to learn lessons from the past 20 months, but we do not have any inside information,” Fisher said.

— with files from Global News’ Andrew Graham and Natalie Lovie