The province has announced that schools with the Trillium Lakelands District School Board (TLDSB) under the jurisdiction of the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) will return to in-class learning on February 10th.
Until then, students will continue with remote learning.
TLDSB also operates schools within the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit’s medical region. Students within its medical region will return to in-person learning on January 25th. Also returning to in-class learning on Monday will be schools within the medical regions of the Grey Bruce Health Unit, Hastings and Prince Edward Counties Health Unit, Kingston, Frontenac, and Lennox & Addington Health Unit, Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit, Peterborough Public Health, and Renfrew County and District Health Unit.
“On the advice from the Chief Medical Officer of Health, the government is allowing seven public health units and over 100,000 students to return to class on Monday, January 25,” explains Minister of Education Stephen Lecce. “Getting students back into class is our top priority. According to Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health and leading medical and scientific experts, including the Hospital for Sick Children, Ontario’s schools are safe places for learning. To ensure schools remain safe, the government is introducing additional measures including provincewide targeted asymptomatic testing, enhanced screening, mandatory masking for students in grades one to three and outdoors where physical distancing cannot be maintained.”
The province ordered all publically funded schools to temporarily move to remote learning starting on January 4th.