The chair of the country’s largest school board says that he is “confident” that there will be sufficient space to accommodate smaller class sizes in September, regardless of whether the number of students coming back to fulltime in-person guidance winds up being higher than anticipated.
On Thursday the Toronto District School Board cast a ballot for spending about $30 million of its stores and millions in commonplace financing on the recruiting of 366 new teachers.
The move will permit the board to keep up class caps of no more than 20 in schools that are situated in neighbourhoods with higher paces of COVID-19 diseases.
There is, nonetheless, the likelihood that the lower class sizes will make the requirement for extra space.
The TDSB says that if 100 per cent of students were to opt to return to the classroom fulltime in September there would be a shortage of 71 classrooms across 34 schools.
That shortage drops to a much more manageable six classrooms across four schools if only 80 per cent of students return.
Speaking with CP24 on Friday morning, TDSB Chair Alexander Brown said that the 80 per cent threshold for returning students is “ideal” but he promised that the board will still have enough space even if a higher proportion of parents opt to send their children back to the classroom.
It just might mean that some students will have to attend classes at alternate facilities like city-run community centres and libraries, he said.
“I am confident that we will (have enough space),” Brown said. “The mayor and the City of Toronto have already put together a list of places that are available and it is more than enough for us at this point. If we need more we could work with the city but I think we are going to do this very well.”
Photo credit: Keoki Fraser via AP
News source: CP24
