Director of education notes low COVID numbers in school a good sign

Director of education for the Trillium Lakelands District School Board, Wes Hahn, says schools are not seeing the spikes in COVID cases “we thought we would see.”

“We are looking at absences every day in our schools,” Hahn said. Sudden spikes or abnormalities are worrying, he said, because they could mean the virus is spreading within the building. So far, just three classrooms have been closed.

Hahn reported to the board that the main concern of senior staff regarding a return to in-person learning was that public health is no longer going to be contact tracing or doing PCR testing. Public health has made it clear to the board that testing students and publicly reporting infection rates at individual schools is no longer part of their mandate.

With that new reality, the only data being collected from the school system is total number of absences each day. Those numbers are collected by the board from each school and sent to the ministry of education in Toronto where they are posted on a provincial webpage.

“There is a lot of talk about reaching a 30 per cent absenteeism rate and what happens if that number is reached,” Hahn said. “Thirty per cent is the public health threshold for reporting all communicable diseases.”

The director emphasized that a 30 per cent absentee rate in a classroom or school only means that conversations with public health about a plan of action will begin. Hahn told trustees that there is a “misunderstanding that it means schools will close.”

Hahn told trustees that teachers are “thrilled” to have access to non-fitted N95 masks, and that all the HEPA filters the board has been allotted are deployed in schools to ensure that “air quality meets ministry standards.”

“RA testing and use of the board screening tool have been very helpful in keeping numbers of infections down,” Hahn said.

Hahn urged parents to continuing doing their daily screening and to keep children home if they have symptoms.

Trustees were told that Superintendent of Learning Paul Goldring met with public health on January 25 about more vaccine clinics utilizing board facilities during school hours.

“We will identify schools where clinics will be of help during the school day,” Hahn shared. “These clinics will be for students between 5-11 and students will require their parents’ permission. A list of host schools will be out shortly.”

Hahn said the board is “happy to support” these clinics and recently participated in a conference call with the provincial chief medical officer of health who shared some hopeful numbers regarding the vaccination rates for those under the age of 18.

As of January 24, 51 percent of all Ontario students 5-11 years of age had received one dose of the vaccine, 86 percent of students 12-17 years of age had received one dose with 82 percent receiving both doses of the vaccine.

Trustee John Byrne asked Hahn if the board absentee numbers are on the TLDSB website and seemed disappointed to hear they are only being posted publicly on the provincial webpage.

“Can we get a link on our website to the provincial website,” Byrne asked. “I think that would be very helpful.”

Hahn told the Bobcaygeon-area trustee that if the board can do that they will.

Byrne then had a series of questions for Hahn on vaccination clinics occurring during school hours, and the potential for students who don’t attend for many different reasons being singled out by their classmates or classmates’ parents for negative peer pressure.

“With clinics running during school hours kids who don’t attend the clinics will face peer pressure. The kids will think they know who is and who isn’t vaccinated, and when parents ask that evening who did and did not get their shots that could cause some problems between parents,” Byrne said.

“I believe it won’t get to that point,” Hahn said. “I believe our staff can deal with this.”

Byrne suggested otherwise. “I can see parents calling parents. Vaccinations should be no one’s business.”