April 2, 2020
Dear DDSB Staff,
I wanted to follow up with you from my note to you earlier this week in light of the Province’s announcement that schools will be closed until at least May 4th. It is also possible that this closure might be extended further pending the advice of Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.
We appreciated receiving some clarity as far as what the expectations will be for school boards during this extenuating circumstance.Many individuals have been hard at work to create a distance learning plan that will effectively respond to the varied needs of our students and families. We are also working to ensure that the plan is in alignment with the direction we have received from the Ministry of Education. We are pleased to share that the DDSB will be launching teacher-led distance learning on Monday April 6th and our Principals will be informing parents later today about these plans.
We know that many of you have questions about your roles and we will be working with all of our union partners as we consider how best to mobilize our staff during this period in support of student learning. An important part of this next phase of our plan is going to be engagement and teamwork amongst each other, our students and their parents. We are all committed to serving student learning and well-being and in this time, we will need to depend on collaborative environments more than ever.
I know that the speed in which we have had to move has been quite rapid and with a lot of us working from home, we miss the in-person interactions that we are all so used to. I want you to know that all of us are in this together and if you need support, please reach out to a colleague.
Once we have Distance Learning Framework launched, we will then plan how to provide the wrap-around services that our system is dependent upon. Thank you all for being an integral part in the work that we are doing to Ignite Learning for our students.
With thanks,
Norah Marsh
Acting Director of Education
