OTTAWA -- The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has once again modified back-to-school plans, changing how high school students who return to class will learn.
The OCDSB had already announced its plans to have students in Grades 9 to 12 learn in a "quadmester" model—taking two courses at a time instead of four—in order to reduce the number of contacts each student has but, in a letter to families Thursday, changes were announced to how those two courses will be delivered.
Instead of students spending part of their day in one class and part of their day in another, the OCDSB now says students will learn a single subject per week on an alternating schedule.
"For example, if a student takes math and geography, they have math instruction in class every day in the first week and the geography every day in the following week," the note from Director of Education Camille Williams-Taylor said.
Students will still be attending school will still be split into two cohorts and will attend school on alternating days.
Virtual Learning
Williams-Taylor said approximately 16,000 students in the board have chosen virtual learning, representing about 22 per cent of all OCDSB families.
The vast majority of students learning virtually—more than 12,000—are in elementary schools. Williams-Taylor said virtual elementary schools will be organized by area.
" We are making every effort to ensure that all students are in a class with at least some children from their school. With over 12,000 students enrolled in the elementary virtual school, this is a very complicated process to complete in a very short period of time," she said.
About 4,000 secondary students are enrolled in virtual learning and will all be enrolled in a single virtual school.
"We will release more details shortly," Williams-Taylor said.
Staggered start dates available next week
Earlier this week, the OCDSB decided to postpone the first day of school until Sept. 8 and being their progressive roll out of start dates from there. In the letter sent Thursday, Williams-Taylor said exact start dates for each cohort are not yet available.
"It is still our intent to prioritize the needs of our youngest and most vulnerable students in terms of start dates. We will share a detailed plan of the progressive start dates at the beginning of next week," she said.
