The Concord School District has prepared three potential plans for returning to school in the fall, but school officials are leaning toward a hybrid model that will have students attending classes in groups, two times a week.
In a meeting of the Concord School Board’s Instructional Committee Wednesday night, interim superintendent Kathleen Murphy presented three potential models for returning to school: a fully in-person plan, a fully remote plan and a hybrid model that includes elements of both. Murphy said the idea behind having three plans is to give the district flexibility to adapt quickly to the changing circumstances of the pandemic if schools need to close down suddenly or are given the green light to fully open.
Two things the district made clear for all in-person scenarios: masks will be required and a six-foot distance between people will be the goal.
In the hybrid model, students would be divided into A and B groups that alternate days of in-person and remote learning. Group A would attend in-person on Mondays and Thursdays, while Group B would attend on Tuesdays and Fridays. Wednesdays would be remote for everyone and serve as a time for teacher planning meetings and building cleaning. Siblings would be grouped together, and attend on the same days.
The remote-only model would be similar to the one last spring, though Murphy said school days would be more planned out with more live instruction and closer monitoring of student participation and attendance.
“We know loud and clear that we needed more structure, students and families wanted schedules. They wanted to know what time a certain lesson was going to be held,” Murphy said. “They want to be online with their teacher, seeing their teacher, seeing their peers in a classroom type setting.”
The fully in-person model would have all students back in the classrooms, but Murphy admitted there were some difficulties associated with implementing this model, including the small size of many Concord classrooms would restrict the ability to maintain a six-foot distance.
The district is predicting that 20-25% of families will choose not to send their children back to school at all, but even with the decrease in numbers, classrooms might still be too crowded to be completely safe.
“Twenty-five percent of the students in a classroom of 20 students, that’s still 16,” Murphy said. “And when we measured out the classrooms it looked like we could maybe get 10 in a classroom.”
The district has not decided which model it will choose to begin the year, though Murphy said the district is leaning toward the hybrid model.
“It offers both, and it allows us to interact with kids and teachers to interact with their students,” Murphy said. “And we can get to everybody and still honor the rules that the CDC has laid out for us, the distancing and all the other pieces.”
In a survey of families that was done in June, about 45% of those who responded said they would prefer a hybrid model, while 37% supported fully in-person and 18% wanted fully remote.
Murphy emphasized that remote-only learning will be an option for families regardless of which model the district picks.
“I want to be clear, there is an element of choice here,” Murphy said. “A parent can decide that, in the best interests of their child, they are going to do their learning remotely. We are going to honor that.”
The district is asking the board to reschedule the student start date for Sept. 8 instead of Aug. 31, to allow teachers extra time to prepare.
In face-to-face models, the district will be requiring all students and staff who are able to do so, to wear masks while inside school buildings. The very youngest children, including preschoolers and primary-age students, will not be required to wear masks all the time. Outdoor “mask breaks” will be scheduled throughout the day.
“I think that is a huge effort to mitigate spread of the disease,” said Matt Cashman, director of facilities and planning.
The school is ordering personal protective equipment (PPE) from vendors, including masks for all students and teachers, face shields for teachers and full-body protection for nurses and custodians.
In classrooms and on school buses, students will be assigned permanent seats so if there is a COVID outbreak, officials will be able to easily identify nearby students who were exposed and hopefully limit spread. Sharing of supplies between students will be limited as much as possible.
Cashman said maintenance teams are looking at layouts of school buildings, and considering assigning different doors for entering and exiting. Pathways through the buildings will direct traffic flow to keep people six feet apart as much as possible. Plexiglass barriers will be installed in some areas. Signs will be put up to encourage distancing and good hygiene.
One challenge will be figuring out the operation of Concord Regional Technical Center, which has eight sending schools and would struggle to operate successfully in a remote-only environment because of its hands-on programs like cosmetology and automotive technology, center director Steve Rothenberg said. CRTC will probably operate in-person, and conversations are happening with each sending school around logistics and transportation.
“The CRTC model, by and large, is going to struggle in a 100% distance mode,” Rothenberg said. “We are trying to find that balance to find opportunities for kids to come in traditional ways, which could be every day in small groups, or on certain days we might take smaller groups for three hours.”
The district is still considering options for what sports will look like in the fall, and is awaiting NHIAA recommendations.
Murphy said all sports would happen outside without the use of locker rooms. Coaches would be required to wear masks if they can’t distance, and students have to wear masks until they are on the field.
The final decision on which learning model will be used in the fall will be based in part on feedback from community members that district officials will gather at a series of forums next week. Murphy says she hopes to reveal the chosen model at the school board meeting on Aug. 3.