In late November, the Ministry of Education revised its COVID-19 guidance for school boards to allow a change in Semester 2 timetable structures to include four courses per day.
Since then, we have consulted with KFL&A Public Health, Algonquin & Lakeshore Catholic District and Hastings and Prince Edward District school boards, Limestone students, families and staff on their preferred model. Given the current COVID-19 context within our community, Public Health has recommended we continue with the current quadmester model (two periods per day) to maintain a limited number of contacts and impacted cohorts when there is a positive case in the classroom.
Results from a Semester 2 timetable structure survey indicate the majority of respondents prefer the current Public Health recommendation to stay the course. Out of almost 5,000 responses, 65 % of respondents supported continuing with the quadmester model of two periods per day. Twenty-five per cent of responses chose semester and 10 per cent chose another option.
Given the recent recommendation from Public Health, and the feedback from our school communities, Limestone will remain with the current quadmester timetable structure for semester 2. We know not everyone will agree with this decision. We feel it is the best model at this time to support student and staff safety.