Toronto's high school teachers may no longer have contract worries, but they are now turning their minds to the risk of swine flu decimating their classrooms this fall.

"The board did ratify the deal last night at the Toronto board meeting," Ken Coran, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, told his members at a union leadershiop on Thursday.

The teachers won't ratify the deal until next early next week, but Coran said they are still planning on a return to the classrooms after Labour Day. "We aren't releasing any details at this point, but we did meet all of our negotiating priorities," he said.

In a news release issued late Wednesday, the Toronto District School Board said: "The agreement falls within the framework of the Provincial Discussion Table (PDT) Agreement which allows funding for a salary increase of 12.55 per cent over four years, enhanced benefits for teachers, and additional staffing for schools."

That leaves the swine flu virus. "We would be foolish to think that a pandemic is not a possibility," Coran said.

Some health experts fear the virus, which has reached pandemic status since first surfacing in Mexico this past spring, could flare anew. Although the flu is largely thought to be mild, some people do develop more serious cases.

Most deaths in Canada have occurred in people with underlying medical conditions.

The union said pregnant and immuno-compromised teachers will be going home if the swine flu starts to hit.

"If a teacher is pregnant, and there was an elevated risk of contracting the virus at her worksite, that person should no longer be in that facility," Conrad said.

One pregnant teacher voiced her own concerns. Chantal Mancini said when one is pregnant, their immune system is depleted, "so I certainly do think we have to be more careful," she said.

If the threat becomes a reality, "I would certainly have the discussion with my union, and I would have the discussion with my administrator about how vulnerable I felt," she said.

The TDSB does have a swine flu preparedness plan, which includes lots of handwashing.

"I really feel very confident that students are going to be washing their hands, and staff are going to be washing their hands, and keeping appropriate distances and coughing into their sleeves," Angela Dornai said.

If staff teachers fall ill, the union said there are ample numbers of substitute teachers available. Failing that, online teaching could become an option, it said.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Janice Golding