As area schools continue to hash out the best way to resume classes at the end of the summer, the Merrimack Valley School District has decided to gives families two options: remote learning from home, or a hybrid model where students go to school two days of the week and stay home the rest of the week.
“Faced with the situation that we’re faced with, this offers the most flexibility for students and families and teachers, and the best possibility that we can in a very untenable situation,” Merrimack Valley School Board chairwoman Seelye Longnecker said Friday. “It is not going to be perfect, but it is the best plan that we could have come up with at this very uncertain time.”
At a school board special meeting held on Zoom Thursday night, Merrimack Valley superintendent Mark MacLean presented the plan to the board and around 400 community participants who tuned in. The meeting, which was originally slated for July 21, was rescheduled due to some technical issues.
According to the framework, if families choose the hybrid plan, their students will be assigned to one of two groups that will attend school on alternating days. Siblings will be assigned to the same groups, to avoid cross-mixing. One group will attend school in-person on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the other group will attend on Wednesdays and Fridays. When the students aren’t in school they will be learning remotely, and Mondays will be remote for everybody.
Masks will be required for everyone, although there will be scheduled “mask breaks” and exceptions in certain circumstances. A six-foot distance between people will be enforced. In classrooms, desks will be spaced six feet apart facing the same direction. Common spaces where students would normally congregate, like cafeterias and libraries, will not be used in the traditional ways, and will have controlled access.
On school buses, students will be distanced with one per seat and only siblings allowed to sit together. The district is encouraging parents to provide transportation for their children if they can. On a survey conducted by the district last week, about 55% of parents said their kids will use family-provided transportation.
If families choose the remote-only learning option, it will be “more streamlined and augmented” than it was during the spring semester, according to the proposal, with a mix of live instruction and as assignments to be completed in the student’s own time. Remote students will be assigned to an instructor who is also fully remote.
Remote students can also choose to tune in and watch livestream footage of class on days their hybrid peers are physically at school. They will interact with those hybrid peers virtually during certain group activities and everyone will interact remotely on remote Mondays.
Students in highly specialized programs may have the option of going in to school five days a week. The Merrimack Valley Learning Center won’t be offering the hybrid model, but will operate either only in-person or only remotely based on state health recommendations.
The District conducted surveys of students, parents and school employees last week that showed most students favored a completely in-person model, while employees and parents preferred a hybrid. An overwhelming majority of students (76%) said they were comfortable returning to in-person school, while about half of employees (56%) said they were comfortable.
At the meeting, school board member Sally Hirsh-Dickinson expressed concerns about the in-person part of the plan, saying that although she understands parents want a choice in being able to send their kids back to school, she remains concerned about the health and safety of district employees.
“I really have concerns about any plans that involve congregating groups indoors for any period of time,” Hirsh-Dickinson said. “I am worried what we are trying to do is outsmart the virus, when the only protection we have against the virus is distance at this point in time.”
Ultimately, the school board voted 7-2 to approve the school reopening plan. Longnecker, along with board members Lorrie Carey, Andrew Chalsma, Brad Kulacz, Bobbi-Jo Michael, Melissa Muzzy and Laura Vincent voted yes, while Hirsh-Dickinson and Tracy Bricchi voted no.
In January, the Merrimack Valley School District will reevaluate the situation and consider returning to five days a week in person if the COVID circumstances allow it.
“I was pleased with the meeting, I felt like we heard from a lot of people and we had a pretty in-depth discussion of what needed to happen,” Longnecker said.
Concord School District is considering a similar hybrid model that divides students into A and B groups to attend on alternating days, similar to Merrimack Valley. Concord will make a decision by Aug. 3 whether it will operate with the hybrid or remotely.
Pembroke School District decided on Tuesday that it will be keeping school completely remote in the fall. Bow-Dunbarton School District is still working to develop a hybrid plan that allows for schooling to be offered in person and remotely at the same time.