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3 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,A ugust 6,2020 insidehalton.com Halton students will be back in the classroom this fall. Based on the "best health advice available," the prov- ince announced its plan Thursday (July 30) for the reopening of schools, call- ing for the resumption of in- class education. At the elementary level, instruction will be five days a week, five hours a day, while the adaptive model, a combination of in-class and online learning, will be used at the secondary level. There is still the option for distance learning should parents not want their children to return to school. Ontario Premier Doug Ford promised $309 million to fund additional supplies and personnel, including 500 new public health nurs- es and 900 custodians, as well as expanded mental health services. On September 8, parents will be able to drop their children off at school and be assured that detailed proto- cols will be in place for kids' safety, said Ford. These will include mandatory masks for staff and students in Grades 4-12 (with excep- tions for those with certain medical conditions), the co- horting of students to limit contact, frequent cleaning and additional health and safety training for teachers Public health nurses will act as support for parents, teachers and administra- tion, as well as be dis- patched to schools for train- ing, screening and testing purposes if necessary. "We need to weigh the risks of COVID-19 against the harm of school closures. We need to consider the toll it's taking on the physical and mental health and per- sonal development of our kids; we know isolation has been extremely hard on them," said Ford. The full-time cohorts at the elementary level will negate the need for outside child care that was the crux of the board's issue with the hybrid/adaptive model for K-6 students, commented Halton District School Board chair, Andrea Gre- benc. "This may lift a major stressor for parents head- ing into September who may have otherwise needed to access and afford care. This will also reduce the po- tential for virus spread within our classroom bub- bles by reducing the need for out-of-the-home child care situations." Grebenc said she was al- so glad to see the plan ad- dress the need for addition- al public health nurses as part of the reopening plan, as well as supports for men- tal health, special needs, personal protective equip- ment, more staff, training and cleaning supplies. Although she is unsure yet if the amount of funding to be allocated to the board will be adequate to address the board's needs, she add- ed. Mandatory masks for high school students and staff and maintaining co- horts are steps in the right direction, said Cindy Gage, president, District 20 Hal- ton Teachers' Bargaining Unit. "The announcement at the end of July has left teachers and education workers a very short time- line to plan and this is con- cerning, as there are many specifics that still need to be worked out; these include extra custodians and educa- tion staff hired to meet the needs of increased cleaning, and cohorts, as well as plan- ning courses to be taught face to face and online." Today's announcement has served to calm some members' anxiety, but with specifics missing, and a plan not fully costed, there is still uncertainty for both teachers and students, said Gage, adding that the Onta- rio Secondary School Teachers' Federation was not consulted in the plan- ning although the union reached out. Kathy Proctor expressed "shock and disappoint- ment" to see masks were not mandatory for kindergar- ten to Grade 3 students, and that children will be expec- ted to be one metre apart as opposed to two. "Of course it's our youn- gest children that have the hardest time self-regulat- ing," said Proctor, president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, Hal- ton division. "It's astonishingly short- sighted," said Proctor. "I fear that come not too far in- to the school year there's go- ing to be an outbreak in schools with this plan and we'll be right back to full- time online learning." NEWS TEACHERS IN 'SHOCK' AS KIDS HEADED BACK TO CLASS KATHY YANCHUS kyanchus@metroland.com "I fear that come not too far into the school year there's going to be an outbreak in schools with this plan and we'll be right back to full-time online learning." - Kathy Proctor, president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario, Halton division Oleg's NoFrills 1395 Abbeywood Drive, Oakville oleg's no frills PriCes effeCTiVe Thursday, augusT 6 To Wednesday, augusT 12, 2020 NEW STORE HOURS Sunday to Saturday 8am - 9pm All checkout lanes open Thursday to Sunday 11am - 6pm** *Unless restricted by local by-law **Unless we are unable due to unforeseen technical difficulties. club size BUTCHER'S CHOICE® SAUSAGE selected varieties saucisse 20501113 297 HAULER™ OFFER SMART SWEETS CANDY selected varieties, 50 g friandises 21154465/21199935 $2 6.55/KG LB PC® WHOLE WHITE MUSHROOMS 227 g product of Ontario or ROMA TOMATOES 2.14/kg, product of Canada or Mexico, no. 1 grade champignons blancs ou tomates 20776239/20143381001 .97 797 MARCANGELO SOUVLAKI selected varieties, 480/640 g souvlaki 21098855 CAULIFLOWER product of Canada, Canada no. 1 grade chou-fleur 20135377001 167 COCA-COLA, CANADA DRY or PEPSI SOFT DRINKS selected varieties, 6x710 mL boissons gazeuses 20304419001/20313741002/20310546002 HEREFORD CORNED BEEF 340 g boeuf salé 20050622 247 HEREFORD CORNED BEEF 277 2.14/KG 897 GOLDEN WHEEL THAI JASMINE RICE 8 kg riz thaï au jasmin 21191581 125 REAL CANADIAN NATURAL SPRING WATER 24x500 mL eau de source naturelle 20154975 LB/ EA 1200 Speers Rd., Unit 12, Oakville, Ont. 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