A few days into the third week of back to school in Windsor-Essex, and it's been a mix of emotions for teachers, students and education staff.
That's according to Mario Spagnuolo, the president of the Greater Essex Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario.
He says teachers and students getting to interact in schools is a positive, but in speaking to teachers its been a more difficult transition back to school.
"Just with the increased concern with the Delta variant, the transmissibiility, the severity," he continued. "There's just a lot more concern and we've also seen more cases this year in September than we would've seen last year at the same time, so people are on edge."
Spagnuolo says from an educational point of view, it's very obvious that students' are needing more support this year than in the past, and the provincial government hasn't provided more money.
As time as gone along, he says he's been hearing more and more from members concerned about what provisions have been put in place to protect them and their students.
"There has been no enhanced PPE from this government, there's no CO2 monitors in the classrooms, class sizes are still the same as what they would be in a non-pandemic year. And one thing that's really interesting is a call for more rapid testing to be used in schools," he said.
Other jurisdictions have implemented the ability for parents to voluntary have their child take a rapid test to get results quicker and be able to make decisions around safety faster.
The local health unit confirmed there have been approximately 65 dismissals since the beginning of the school year, which Spagnuolo admits he didn't see coming.
"I definitely didn't think we'd have cases on the second or third day of school and there are a lot more than I would've anticipated. But I'm also in another sense not surprised because we knew with the Delta variant and what we saw in other jurisdictions. I think we could do more, and that's what I think is the most frustrating."
Spagnuolo believes the province should be doing everything in its power to protect the students not yet eligible to receive vaccines, and not putting as much pressure on local staff.
- with files from Rob Hindi