EAST CENTRAL — The Horizon School Division is currently planning for five full-time virtual teachers in the 2021-22 school year, continuing to allow the option for students to learn from home.
This is a drop from the 2020-21 school year, which had 15 full-time teachers funded through the provincial government’s COVID-19 school division supports.
“We budgeted for less because we expect that with the roll-out of vaccines, probably some lesser restrictions and that sort of thing, it is going to be easier for parents to have their students in school,” said Kevin Garinger, the division’s director of education.
“We don’t know exactly what the need is going to be, so that’s something that we’re going to obviously monitor and deal with.”
With benefits, the average cost for each teacher is around $82,000 per year.
The full 2021-22 budget is expected to be passed at the division’s board meeting in June.
