Students are heading back to the classroom for in-person learning Monday morning, but local president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation says staff still have lots of unanswered questions.
Erin Roy says due to COVID-19 and the Omicron variant, many educators are still at home isolating which could lead to some schools being short staffed.
She says the the past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind.
"It's been quite chaotic, if I could use that term, because the board has been working 24/7 to try to interpret all of the things that come out in the ministry memos," she says. "Then there's obviously lots of questions about what happens if we don't have enough staff. So there's lots of unanswered questions."
Roy fears the problem could get worse with teachers and students learning in-person.
"If I were to bet on it, most people are going to be happy to be back in the classroom, but we don't have the layers of protection ready for Monday that the government has told everyone are there," says Roy. "It's just the supply chain doesn't work that quickly. So there's obviously nervousness because of that, and just the nature of Omicron and how catchy it is."
She says the current plan to cover classrooms isn't the best.
"The board is preparing to have all hands on deck, which means pulling people from other jobs to cover in the event that they do run short on classroom teachers, but that's no way to run a school," she says. "There's a difference between kids in school learning and just warehousing kids. So there is nervousness about the staffing levels."
Students across the province were shifted to online learning following the holiday break in an effort to curb the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.
The health unit was able to clear all outbreaks at local schools during the two weeks students were at home.
— with files from AM800's Rob Hindi