"Not realistic."
That's how the local president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario is describing the province's plan to delay opening schools by two days to implement a number of COVID-19 measures.
Mario Spagnuolo says 48-hours is not enough time to get N95 masks and HEPA filter units out to every school.
He says it comes down to poor planning.
"I'm trying to understand the logic behind pushing it back the two days. To me, if they are thinking that they're going to be able to bring in N95s for every educator and additional HEPA filters in every classroom in Ontario in 48 hours, I'm not sure who they're trying to fool."
Spagnuolo is questioning the last minute nature of the announcement.
"This is another example of them thinking of things in the last hour and expecting things to happen overnight. If we weren't dealing with children's health, I would think it would be comical. I think they should have taken this a little bit more seriously and started planning weeks in advance of this."
He says, once again, educators were not consulted on the latest measures.
"There could have been some serious conversations to take place on what is needed in our schools to ensure that going back is done safely. And we're still short on the details. What are the expectations for staff? What are students going to be doing on Monday and Tuesday, and what is the procedure for Wednesday?"
Windsor-Essex students were set to return from the holiday break on Monday, but the province has shifted the reopening to Wednesday.
At a press conference Thursday, Ontario Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore said the extra days are intended to give schools time to provide N95 masks to all staff while installing 3,000 HEPA filter units in addition to the 70,000 that have already rolled out.
Ontario set a new single day record Thursday with 13,807 COVID-19 cases.