Ottawa Carleton District School Board

OCDSB Learn At Home is the second phase of a province-wide learning strategy to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. OCDSB Learn At Home is a way to focus student learning on key concepts so that students can finish their academic year and be supported to advance to the next year or graduate.

On April 6 th , all OCDSB schools will move to Phase 2 of Learn at Home. This is a period of transition for all of us. We are continuing to take a phased approach to our Learn At Home and will focus on teaching and learning in two week blocks. This will give us an opportunity to hear how it is working for our families and students and make any necessary adjustments. We are fortunate to have such caring educators who have been checking in with students and families over the past two weeks. We’ve encouraged our staff to work together and to be thoughtful and age appropriate about the number of points of contact for both students and families.

April is Autism Awareness Month, and while typical school celebrations and recognition ceremonies are not possible at this time, we wanted to highlight that Thursday, April 2nd, 2020 is World Autism Awareness Day.

Dear OCDSB Families: Today, the Government of Ontario announced that schools and child care centres will remain closed to students until Monday, May 4, 2020. As these dates come closer, this decision will be re-evaluated based on public health advice and the closure may be extended if necessary.

Dear OCDSB Families: As we kick-off a new week, I wanted to touch base and let you know about our progress to date. As you can appreciate, developing a plan to support learning for 75,000 students while schools are closed, is a challenging task. There are still many questions about next steps and we anticipate further direction from the Ministry of Education, but there is lots to report on.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has been made aware of reports of an incident in a community park that involved a Trustee and a resident. We are not aware of all of the details related to this specific incident, but we are very concerned about the allegations of racism and bias that this has generated.

Dear OCDSB Families: I wanted to provide an update of our current progress on supporting student learning during the COVID-19 closure and some information about possible next steps. I know that there are many different perspectives on this issue, and at the OCDSB, we are working to find a path forward that meets the many needs and perspectives.

Dear OCDSB Families, Please find attached a letter from the Minister of Education which contains information relating to the closure of schools in response to COVID-19.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) has reached tentative central agreements with the Government of Ontario, the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association and the Council of Trustees’ Associations. Separate tentative central agreements have been negotiated for ETFO’s teacher/occasional teacher and education worker members.