Thread by @normsworld

Back to school update at our Board meeting! All students are now back in school, orientations complete. We’re so glad to have them back! Working with city & Archdiocese to secure space in churches, parks and community centres. #topoli #onpoli #onted

Permits for Community Use of Schools are suspended for October. Staff working on process for some access for November. Communicating with permit applicants. #topoli #onpoli #onted

HR working hard to recruit new hires, fill LTOs and assign 900 teachers for virtual school. Dealing with staging figures with a fluid student population that has been switching from face to face to virtual, and vice versa. #topoli #onpoli #onted

Adding teachers to Virtual school, looking in particular for Spec Ed and French Immersion. French in virtual school remains a challenge due to staffing. #topoli #onpoli #onted

.@TCDSBdirector has noted that recruitment of French teachers continues to be a challenge province wide.

We have acquired 500 HEPA air purifiers. The 36 schools without any ventilation will receive them first. St Mary is one such school without ventilation. Next priority will be 5th quintile schools. #topoli #onpoli #onted

We have acquired some electrostatic sprayers that help with aerosol disinfection. We are reviewing clear masks that are medical grade. Currently back ordered. Ordering 200 masks for DHH students and teachers for a pilot. #topoli #onpoli #onted

We ran all ventilation systems for 3 days prior to school opening, and run the ventilation systems for 2 hours before school start and 2 hours after. #topoli #onpoli #onted

We’ve ordered 5000 plexiglass shields for students. They will go first to the 5th quintile schools. Office and admin plexiglass will he installed by end of week. #topoli #onpoli #onted

Playgrounds will be reopened shortly at our schools, one cohort at a time. Yay!

TPH has provided a list of COVID-19 Public Health Nurses (PHN) available on their website. You can also see which nurse is assigned to your school here: toronto.ca/community-peop… #onted

Parent committees will be able to fundraise for water bottles, logoed cloth masks self directed. For portable hand washing stations, portable air purifiers they will need to work with superintendent. #topoli #onpoli #onted

Transportation: We started by only transporting spec Ed students this week. Next week we start with all students. There will likely not be transportation services for 5-10% of students. Please consider walking or cycling! #topoli #onpoli #onted

Schools are reaching out to students in the virtual school to confirm device and internet service requests. We have a limited # of devices, 2500 chrome books and 400 iPads. We are prioritizing by those most in need. We have loaned 10,500 computers to students last spring.

We are trying to link up students and teachers from their homeschool for the virtual school. We had a great start to the year for our virtual school @TCDSBVS! Extended French, FI and IB will be a significant challenge.