Week of August 8, 2021 - Summer Edition #3
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Hope you are taking time recover, rejuvenate, reflect and renew...
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This Week's Update- Anishinabek First Nations
- Get Your Shot!
- Health Guidance for the 2021-22 School Year
- Learning Model Selection for 2021-22 School Year
- Return to School - Virtual Ward Forum - August 9th
New Invitations - Youth Programming at Hart House
- Page Program Returns at Queen's Park
Worth Repeating - Respect the Rules - No Dogs Allowed on School Property
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TDSB Summer Menu of Activities and Supports
- 2-1-1
- Development Committee’s (K-12 SDC) Initial Recommendations Report Consultation
- School Year Calendar
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Anishinabek First Nations
Wear a mask! Wash your hands!
Mnaadendan gibi-maadiziwin – Respect your life
Mnaadenim kwiiji-bimaadiz – Respect your fellow being
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Get Your Shot!Everyone 12+ can now book their shot! Vaccines provide the best protection against COVID-19 and variants. The sooner you get both of your shots, the better for all and the safer our schools will be.Toronto's data is updated twice per week on Monday and Thursday by 4:00 PM, except on statutory holidays. As of August 5th
- Eligible population (12+) - 80.8% of 12+ with at least one shot;
- 71.8% of 12+ fully vaccinated
As mentioned we take our lead from the Ministry of Education, which is not mandating vaccines at this time. Please note the TDSB has no authority to mandate vaccinations for staff and or students 12+ without the support of the government.
That said, the TDSB will continue to help facilitate vaccination opportunities and clinics within our schools, together with local health partners as we have over recent months.
Clinics at Schools This Week - - August 9 - 12-6 p.m.Gosford Public School
30 Gosford Blvd 12 years and older
No appointment needed - August 10 - 12-6 p.m. Beverley Heights Middle School
26 Troutbrooke Dr 12 years and older
No appointment needed - August 11 - 12-6 p.m. Northview Heights Secondary School
550 Finch Ave W 12 years and older
No appointment needed - August 12 - 12-6 p.m. Rockcliffe Middle School
400 Rockcliffe Blvd 12 years and older
No appointment needed - August 12 - 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. Fairbank Public School
2335 Dufferin Street
See flyer below - August 13 - 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. Fairbank Public School
2335 Dufferin Street
See flyer below - August 13 - 12-6 p.m. Weston Collegiate Institute
100 Pine St 12 years and older
No appointment needed - August 14 - 12-3 p.m. Albion Heights Junior Middle School
45 Lynmont Rd 12 years and older
No appointment needed
Learn More
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COVID-19 Update - Return to School Fall 2021
From OPSBA - Earlier this week Minister of Education Stephen Lecce announced the province’s plans for the fall return to school. The plan, entitled COVID-19: Health, Safety and Operation Guidance for Schools (2021-2022), outlines the school protocols for elementary and secondary panels and provides details on transportation, extra-curricular activities and mental health supports. From TDSB - Now that we have received guidance from the Ministry of Education, the TDSB will continue to work with Toronto Public Health (TPH) and with employee groups to develop specific operational plans for TDSB – details that provide more information on how our schools and administrative centres will create and maintain health and safety measures and procedures that need to be in place when school resumes in September.
As part of this commitment to student and staff safety, the TDSB will continue to require the use of facemasks by all students in JK/SK classrooms this year. As noted above, we have no authority to mandate vaccinations. What can we do? The TDSB is committed to providing HEPA filters in all occupied classrooms in the coming school year.
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Updated Health and Safety Guidance for the 2021-22 There is no question TPH's advice will depend on key public health and health care indicators. That is why the best thing everyone can do to ensure schools reopen safely is continuing to follow health and safety guidelines and those 12+ get double vaccinated. Information will continue to be updated on the TDSB's website - below please find a summary of the information to date.
Ventilation in Schools
Ventilation is one strategy to help prevent and slow the spread of COVID-19 in schools by helping to reduce the number of virus particles in the air. The TDSB has focused on several areas to improve ventilation in schools and keep students and staff healthy. The board follows the May 2020 American Society of Heating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHAE) guidance for building operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Filtering the Air
- Installing more than 14,000 HEPA units in TDSB schools to enhance air cleaning and meet the TDSB’s commitment of placing an institutional-grade HEPA filter in every occupied classroom, occupied portable and wellness room for the start of school.
- Ensuring the filters in existing mechanical systems are replaced prior to school starting and increasing the frequency of changing them throughout the year.
- Ensuring Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Settings are Maximizing Ventilation
- Conducting assessments on all mechanical ventilation to ensure they are fully operational and servicing where necessary.
- Prioritizing repairs for mechanical systems to ensure they are operating efficiently.
- Adjusting the operating schedules for all mechanical systems to increase the amount of air exchanges per day in the building.
- Setting the systems to run at maximum outside airflow a minimum of two hours before school starts and two hours after it ends to refresh the air before arrival and remove remaining particles at the end of the day.
Maximizing Outdoor Air
- Encouraging schools to open windows for short periods of time throughout the day to increase ventilation and bring in natural fresh air.
- Promoting and supporting classes, activities and lunches to be held outside where possible. Learn more how the outdoors is being considered an extension of the classroom.
Addressing Local Projects to Improve Ventilation - Investing more than $35 million in:
- Upgrading the air handling equipment in 66 TDSB schools.
- Upgrading Building Automation Systems in 103 schools to provide new digital controls to operate HVAC systems. These new controls will allow updated programming to increase the amount of fresh air delivered to the school throughout the year and also provide improved diagnostic capabilities that will alert school operations staff if ventilation equipment is not operating correctly.
- Installing new ventilation systems in 21 portables.
- Continuing to address and prioritize local ventilation needs.
List of Ventilation Systems in TDSB Schools - Ventilation is the process of supplying or removing air from a space for the purpose of controlling the indoor air quality within the space. The TDSB has nearly 600 schools that use a variety of ventilation systems based primarily on when the school and any subsequent building additions were built. The types of ventilation systems commonly in use are:
- Mechanical Ventilation -- This is outdoor air supplied by motor-driven fans that push outdoor air into a building aided by exhaust fans that expel air out of a building. These systems also condition the air with heating and/or cooling equipment so that air is filtered and delivered to the space at comfortable temperatures.
- Infiltration (Passive) Ventilation – This is outdoor air delivered to the space primarily by unfiltered air moving through doors, windows or other openings in buildings. In TDSB schools, motor-driven exhaust fans are often used to induce infiltration drawing outdoor air into a building.
- Combined Ventilation – Schools that have had one or more additions built over time may have a combination of mechanical and infiltration ventilation systems. Infiltration ventilation would typically be found in older sections of a school while newer sections would most likely be served by mechanical ventilation systems.
HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) Filters - Regardless of the ventilation system(s) in use at a school, all TDSB classrooms have been equipped with medical-grade, fan-powered HEPA filtration units. HEPA filters are clinically proven to reduce the spread of airborne infections in health care facilities by removing viruses, bacteria and allergens as small as 0.3 microns from the air. The use of HEPA filtration units, in combination with improved ventilation strategies and existing health and safety protocols, work together to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission and support a safer environment for staff and students.
Public Health Guidelines - Regarding decisions on whether to relax guidelines on physical distancing (cohorting) in schools, we will rely on the advice of Toronto Public Health - and this will depend entirely on the amount of community spread and vaccination rates which is why we all must continue to do our part. Masking from JK-12 will continue to be required at TDSB.
Testing - Regarding testing in schools, we understand Toronto Public Health and the hospitals are developing a plan to have a convenient, accessible, non-invasive Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests available at schools - take home saliva kits. There will be more on this prior to school reopening and it will be an important part of the strategy.
Outdoor Learning - As noted above, staff have confirmed t here will also be an emphasis on outdoor learning when schools reopen which will also encourage teachers to take students outside, even in the winter, as there are many health and well being benefits for increasing the amount of time outdoors. We have updated information on the website on this direction - Taking Learning Outside. The current model for outdoor education will also be restructured to provide instructional support in schools while ensuring that all staff and students have access to resources made available through the TDSB Outdoor Education Centres; and investments in school ground infrastructure will be prioritized based on the guiding principles and priorities outlined in the report approved by the Board in May.
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Learning Model Selection 2021-22
You should have received an email from the TDSB asking families to complete an online Selection Form for In-Person or Virtual Learning for the 2021-22 school year. While requests for Virtual Learning will be accommodated where necessary, we strongly encourage all students to select In-Person Learning. Based on our TDSB data about how students feel they learn best, and available data with respect to students returning to in-person learning, we feel confident that this is the best choice for students following what has been a challenging year. Please note that the Virtual Schools (elementary and secondary) that were in place for the 2020-21 school year will not be offered for the 2021-22 school year. The province is not funding the boards for virtual learning although they are mandating us to offer it.
Virtual Learning will be provided through home schools and will include live, online instruction involving teachers, staff and students from the home school or a group of schools. More information will be available directly from schools in September.
Families can complete the Selection Form for In-Person or Virtual Learning online until Thursday, August 12. Families with two or more children will receive a separate email and link for each student. Families must complete the Selection Form using the link provided. Those without an email address on file with the TDSB will receive a phone call to complete the Selection Form. Students will be placed in In-Person Learning if we do not receive a completed Selection Form by August 12.
Please note that over 241,000 emails were sent - if you have not received yours please note the following dates -
- August 10-12: First round of School Messenger Selection Form calls to parents who we do not have email addresses on file
- August 13 and 16: Second round of School Messenger Selection Form calls to parents who did not respond to Qualtrics online form or did not respond to the first round of calls (above).
Questions a bout the Selection Form Process can be emailed to SelectionForm@tdsb.on.ca. If there are specific questions about a student or a school, we ask parents/caregivers to direct those questions to their school’s Superintendent.
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Join Us! Return to School - Virtual Ward Forum - August 9 - 5:30-7:00pm
Parents/Caregivers, Students, Community Members, Superintendents, and School Staff are invited to join me and Trustee Rachel Chernos Lin for a Virtual Joint Ward Forum!
As we re-open our schools, under the direction of Toronto Public Health and the Ministry of Education, the TDSB is doing everything possible to ensure the physical health and safety of all school community members, while also providing the best learning experience possible for students, supporting mental health and well-being and considering the needs of families and staff. Please join us and our Superintendents to discuss what that will look like and answer as many of your questions as we can.
As staff are busy working on the operationalization of the latest directives from the Ministry of Education, and awaiting Toronto Public's Health revised guidelines for this school year, we may not be able to answer every single question you may have just yet. However, we will do our very best to address questions with the information we have, and we will take back any questions where we don't yet have answers to seek out that information as it becomes available.
The meeting will be hosted on the Zoom video conference platform. Registrants will be sent a meeting invite with a link and call in details for the session the day of the meeting.
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New Invitations -
Youth Programming at Hart House
Opportunity #1: Hart House Youth Advisory Council -
The Hart House Youth Advisory Council is a new opportunity launching this fall and will provide an opportunity for students in grades 9–12 to learn leadership skills by immersing themselves in an advisory council setting. This is a fantastic opportunity for youth to build leadership skills and gain an understanding of how committees and advisory council’s function.
Opportunity #2: BEE – Brotherhood of Ethnic Excellence -
We are delighted to be offering the Brotherhood of Ethnic Excellence (BEE) program. BEE is a Hart House youth advisory program that aims to build stronger connections between the University of Toronto campus and Black young men in grades 9–12. The program aims to develop, support, and engage young men residing in the Toronto downtown communities for planned workshops, to attend Hart House and campus events, or just hang out.
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Page Program at Queen's Park
Each year approximately 150 young students from across Ontario are selected to participate in Ontario's Legislative Page Program. This unique educational program for Ontario students provides an opportunity to experience the provincial legislature in action and forge new lifelong friendships with peers from all over the province!
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Respect the Rules - No Dogs Allowed on School Grounds
I understand that in many communities our school grounds are used as community parks - and when school is not in session (during the school year, grounds are for school-use only from 8am - 6pm), we welcome the community - the humans. Dogs are not allowed on school property at any time. Many people are surprised to learn that City of Toronto By-Laws and TDSB Policy prohibit dogs (leashed or unleashed) being on school property. Again, dogs are not allowed on school property at any time.
This summer, in particular, I continue to receive multiple complaints that dog owners are completely ignoring this - and not only bringing their dogs onto school playgrounds, but allowing their dogs to run unleashed - Children should be able to play freely - From a community member - Children no longer are seen playing in the field in the early evening as the space has been taken over by dogs. Tonight, two dogs had a vicious fight which deterred a family that had been heading into the schoolyard. The animals are also defecating in the field which discourages families from using it even when the dogs are not present as not everyone cleans up after their dog.
Especially during COVID-19, children’s play spaces should be respected.
And please do not verbally abuse TDSB caretaking staff - I am hearing that when caretakers onsite try and inform dog owners, they are met with threats and intimidation.
Please respect the rules and let the children play. Dogs are not allowed in Toronto Public School grounds.
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TDSB Summer Menu of Activities and Supports
Programs and activities are being provided by TDSB’s Professional Support Services (PSS) staff from Social Work, Speech- Language Pathology, Psychology, Child and Youth Services and Occupational/Physical Therapy.
Join us for our Virtual Drop-Ins!
During the month of July and the last two weeks of August, PSS Staff will continue to offer Virtual Office Hours for Caregivers/Parents of all students, as well as Caregivers/Parents of students with special/complex needs (please below for new summer times).
Connect directly with staff from TDSB Professional Support Services. Join us to explore ideas regarding your child or youth's mental health and well-being.
Virtual Office Hours for parents/caregivers of students with special/complex needs
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2-1-1
Do you need help finding food, housing, financial assistance, mental health support, employment support, support for seniors, winter clothing and/or shelter? For information and referral to government, health, community and social services.211 is free, confidential and available 24/7 in 150+ languages to connect you to local community supports.
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Development Committee’s
(K-12 SDC) Initial Recommendations Report Consultation
The province is encouraging participation in the public consultation on the K-12 Standards Development Committee’s (K-12 SDC) Initial Recommendations Report (Initial Report). In Ontario, the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) outlines the legislated process for the development of new accessibility standards through Standards Development Committees.
The mandate of the K-12 Education SDC is to provide recommendations to government on removing and preventing accessibility barriers in the publicly funded education system. The Initial Report is the result of an extensive joint effort of Government appointed representatives from the disability community and the education sector to identify the barriers that students with disabilities face and the measures needed to remove and prevent them.
This new video will help you better understand the report, and how and why you should provide feedback. I encourage you to watch the video and to fill out the survey.
The Initial Report was posted online on June 1, 2021 for a period of business 65 days. The public may also provide written submissions by email to: educationSDC@ontario.ca. The public has an opportunity to participate in these consultations until September 2, 2021.
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School Year Calendar 2021-2022- First day of classes for students is September 9, 2021
- First day back from Winter Break is January 3, 2022
- The last day of class for elementary students is June 30, 2022
- The last day of class for secondary students is June 29, 2022
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In Case of Emergency
Over the summer, or at any time, if you notice anything at a school that concerns you, please call the TDSB Security Call Centre (416) 395-4620 and the Toronto Police - non-emergencies can be reported by calling 416-808-2222.
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