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9 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,M arch 31,2022 insidehalton.com 905-469-3232 1459 Nottinghill Gate, Oakville delmanor.com Discover the Delmanor Difference, Choose your Suite Today! For a complimentary policy review, call 1-855-241-1831 or visit caasco.com/springinsurance. Find a licensed CAA authorized broker at caainsurancecompany.ca/findabroker. 1 Auto and Home Insurance are underwritten by CAA Insurance Company. 2 To qualify for the CAA Member Loyalty Discount, you must be a current CAA Member in good standing (CAA Membership dues paid in full by membership expiry date). A La Carte Members maximum savings on auto insurance is 5%. ®/™ CAA trademarks are owned by, and use is authorized by, the Canadian Automobile Association. Certain conditions, limitations and underwriting guidelines apply. (220550-02/22) We Provide Getting-Spring- Enthusiasts-to- Their-Happy-Place Coverage Going out to enjoy the warm weather? Before you head to your happy place, check that your auto insurance covers you properly. A licensed CAA Insurance1 Agent can tell you if you have options like these: • CAA MyPace™, Canada's only pay-as-you-go auto insurance payment program with savings for those who drive up to 12,000 km/year • Exclusive CAA Member savings2 • Save up to 22.5% for bunding CAA Auto and Home Insurance The role of elementary school teacher-librarian is being eliminated at the end of this school year by the Halton District School Board. The move is not a cost- cutting one, but a redistri- bution and maximization of resources to allow the board to help close student learning gaps due to the pandemic, according to Marnie Denton, HDSB's manager of communica- tion and engagement ser- vices. "The change in staffing will allow us to hire approx- imately 15 (permanent) learning resource teachers who will provide targeted early literacy support to schools in need after the last two years of interrupt- ed learning," said Denton. An additional 17 library technicians will be hired to ensure libraries keep run- ning, she added. While this role has been slowly chipped away at for the past number of years, this latest announcement is still a devastating blow to schools and students, said Lisa Klimkowski, presi- dent of Halton elementary teachers, in a letter to the board. Teacher-librarians wear many hats, she said. "They are our experts in STEM, they instil a love of books and reading into our students, they collaborate with classroom teachers to deliver high quality lessons and units. They run book clubs and book fairs and they make the school li- brary the heart and soul of a school." Teacher-librarians she spoke with were "obviously very upset because they know that the role has val- ue." None, however, will lose their job as they will be as- signed to classrooms. Klimkowski said she un- derstands the provincial pressure to close learning gaps and that the board must make "tough deci- sions." "I just don't think this is the right one," said Klim- kowski. There are approximate- ly 90 elementary teacher-li- brarians at the board, ac- cording to the union. None works full time in the position, so it equates to about 20 full-time positions across all schools. NEWS PUBLIC BOARD ELIMINATING ELEMENTARY TEACHER LIBRARIANS KATHY YANCHUS kyanchus@metroland.com The number of CO- VID-19 patients in Halton's hospitals rose from six to nine over the past week. After falling as low as three -- the lowest total this year -- midway through the month, that number saw a slow in- crease through the latter half of March as the region went 11 days without seeing a decrease. Eight of the people in hospital were admitted for COVID-19 while one was admitted for another rea- son but later tested posi- tive. Hospital capacity in the region dropped from 102 per cent to 99 per cent for acute care beds, while in- tensive care unit beds saw a more significant decrease, going from 83 to 68 per cent. There were seven CO- VID-19 hospitalizations over the past week, two each in Oakville, Milton and Halton Hills and one in Burlington. That was up slightly from six the previ- ous week. For the second straight week, Halton Region re- ported no deaths related to the virus. At press time, there have been 345 CO- VID-related deaths in Hal- ton region, including 99 this year. The region did see con- firmed COVID-19 cases rise by almost a third over the previous week as the sev- en-day average rose 55.4 to 73.6. That is despite the number of tests being con- ducted decreasing over each of the past three weeks. The Ontario science ta- ble estimates the actual number of cases could be as much as 10 times higher. Vaccination rates re- mained virtually un- changed. WEEKLY ROUNDUP: COVID HOSPITALIZATIONS AND CASES RISE SLIGHTLY HERB GARBUTT hgarbutt@metroland.com SCAN THIS CODE to view COVID cases tracker. SIGN UP FOR OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER AT INSIDEHALTON.COM