Pandemic's sixth wave has 'decimated' staffing levels in Waterloo region schools

Waterloo region schools have been hit hard by the pandemic in recent weeks, with administrators scrambling to backfill teachers who are off sick with COVID-19. 

"It's totally decimated the school staff," said Patrick Etmanski, head of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association, Waterloo unit. 

"Prior to the protocols being removed, people were getting ill and there were a few here and there that I would hear from who had COVID — but now it's just rampant." 

Last week, the Catholic board took the rare step of closing a Cambridge elementary school because it didn't have enough staff to safely operate.

The school has since reopened, but the backfill problem remains — with the board's head of human resources describing the sixth wave of the pandemic as "unlike anything we've experienced before." 

It's a similar situation at the Waterloo Region District School Board, according to union leader Jeff Pelich. 

"Everything is in chaos," said Pelich, president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario — Waterloo Region. 

"This year is like none other — we're seeing the highest numbers of absences that we've ever seen."

Pelich described the present situation as a "perfect storm," with a high number of staff off sick and a lack of supply teachers to fill in for them. 

When there aren't enough supply teachers available, schools are forced to get creative, reassigning central teachers or pulling teachers from elsewhere in the school to supervise a classroom during their planning period. 

Pelich said that isn't good for teachers — or for students. 

"Instead of having one qualified educator who is in front of them all day long, they're likely to have five, six, seven, eight different people in any given day in front of their classroom," said Pelich. 

Lately, the Catholic board has also been relying more often on "classroom supervisors." These are people who are not qualified teachers but who have passed a vulnerable sector check and can watch over a classroom to make sure students are safe, Etmanski said. 

"At this point, school boards are saying, 'If you've got a pulse and you want to help, we'll probably take you,'" said Etmanski.