We hope all of you are safe, healthy, and back at home if you did travel over the break. I can say with no reservation, this March Break was like no other. The fluidity of COVID-19 and its’ ever changing impact on us has created a lot of angst and unknown in our world.
As we shared before the break, the TDSB will continue to be the main source of information sharing for schools but do want to highlight and share a few items which are specific to LKS.
ETFO Tentative Agreement: The Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA) and the Government of Ontario have reached a tentative agreement with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) for both teachers and education workers. The details of the agreement remain confidential until ratified by all parties. ETFO has suspended all job action while awaiting ratification of the deal.
This is at least one good news story in the past 24 hours. Now that a tentative agreement has been reached, I think it is important for our community to know how professional the LKS staff was through all of this disruption. Kimm and I never once felt like we were on our own and our staff did a phenomenal job keeping things as normal as they possibly could for our students. As a group, they continued to jump in when needed, have lunch with their students when we were short lunch supervision, and most importantly maintained a high level of expectations for all of our students.
Learn at Home: The Ministry of Education has launched a new website to help students in Grades K – 12 learn at home. The website, www.ontario.ca/learnathome, provides students with supplementary learning resources to practice math and literary skills during the closure of all public schools.
Update on Continuation of Learning, Graduation and Post-Secondary: Director of Education John Malloy has posted a letter online with an update on the continuation of learning, graduation and post-secondary transition for TDSB students with regard to the current health crisis. (If this link does not work, you can find it on the homepage of www.tdsb.on.ca)
As we get closer to April 6, we will continue to follow the direction of the Government of Ontario and our medical professionals. If it is determined that schools are going to remain closed for any period of time, we will be working with the TDSB and the LKS staff. While not ideal, there are a number of things we can do from our end to direct and support student learning. Kimm and I will no doubt be involved in virtual meetings this week and will share information with you as we have it.
Social Distancing: For the health and safety of our school communities, please remember the importance of social distancing and minimizing contact between people. I, like many of you I am sure, have been glued to the television for every press conference and news update. The one thing I have taken from this is the importance of limiting contact with others and keeping my own children as isolated as possible. Living in a house that would be spending 6-7 days in arenas for hockey, these are most certainly unprecedented times for us and although they are not happy with the circumstances, they do understand.
Please take care of yourselves and all of our students. We look forward to seeing all of you as soon as we can.
We will keep in touch.
John and Kimm
LKS Parent Council 