Hamilton public school board is short 600 devices as remote learning starts next week

Some students in Hamilton's public school board may not get to start full-remote learning with a device on Monday, Jan. 4 as the board is short 600 devices.

It also means that, for now, full-day kindergarten students won't receive any devices. Instead, they will learn through work sheets, readings and other options that families can pick up or find on the school website.

HWDSB director Manny Figueiredo said he understands families may be frustrated.

"This year has been a year of being agile. Our commitment was ... every student who wants a device will get one. The demand from last spring to this fall has grown," he said.

"I hope parents engage [their children] this week. It's not an extended holiday, it's remote learning for the week."

He said 6,500 families requested devices, but right now Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) has 5,900 (which have been in use daily during the school year).

"The demand doesn't always match the need by school community. One school might request 200 devices and only have 100 on-site," he said on Tuesday.

"We have to collect them, clean them up, redeploy them — that's what the team is working on today — redistributing them based on survey results and then giving them to schools and the learning commons and libraries so they're there today. Tomorrow, our principals, vice-principals and some of our managers and supervisors from service departments are out bagging, sorting and putting labels on them for the kids."

That means families of elementary students who were previously learning in-person can pick up devices on Jan. 4 but chances are not everyone will get one that day.

HWDSB waiting on order for 1,000 devices

Figueiredo said the board ordered 1,000 new devices, but they haven't arrived yet. He hopes all students who requested a device via the board's survey will have one by Tuesday, Jan. 5.

This follows last week's decision by the province to have students learn remotely starting this coming Monday — a decision Figueiredo and board chair Dawn Danko both said should have come earlier. 

Elementary students will begin learning in-person again on Jan. 11 while high school students will start in-class learning on Jan. 25. However, HWDSB said students receiving special education support through in-person, self-contained classes before the winter break can return to in-person learning on Jan. 4 and transportation will continue to be provided.

The Ministry of Education has emphasized schools are safe but stated it wanted to take a precautionary measure to help control the spread of the virus.

Hamilton's public school board saw the number of COVID-19 cases more than double in December, with 115 new infections in students and staff compared to 95 cases between September and the end of November according to data online. 

That's 210 cases since school started this fall (though some of them didn't pose a risk to other students or staff). There were also six reported outbreaks in December, compared to just one outbreak in November and October respectively.

Despite this, Figueiredo said schools are still "the safest place for students to be" because of the number of cases compared to the total student population, the low number of outbreaks and public health precautions in place. He said he hopes the province doesn't change any of the return dates and so far, has no indication it will.

Catholic school board launches website for parents

Hamilton's Catholic school board has previously indicated it won't face issues transitioning in to full-remote learning for Jan. 4. In the meantime, the board launched a website for parents to help families learn more about how virtual learning works.

"The new website was designed to bring together a number of resources and systems that parents need, all in one place," said the board.

"Parents can also find tips on supporting virtual learning at home and a video series on different technologies."

Emergency childcare for Halton health-care and front-line workers

Meanwhile, Halton has partnered with the Ministry of Education and select operators in the region to provide free emergency child care for front-line and health-care workers with children aged four to 12 who are registered for school in the area.

A release from Halton region says the province is paying for the spaces for those who can't support their child's learning or care at home and who have no other alternatives during the planned closure of elementary schools for the first week. Child care for children up to four years of age and holiday child care programs will also remain open throughout the shutdown.

Anyone eligible can apply for emergency child care by contacting approved child care operators.