New London student registration underway
By John Faucher
After five months of being at home, students in the New London School District are headed back to the classroom in a traditional five-day per week learning model beginning Sept. 1.
Superintendent Scott Bleck and reentry planning team members presented the district’s reopening plan at a July 13 board meeting.
The school board unanimously supported the plan, following the three-hour long meeting.
Bleck noted that the first commitment within the plan is the health and safety of students, staff and the community.
“Every intent will be to open our buildings to Monday through Friday instruction for all students that want to be part of our campus and schools,” he said.
“We will do our very best to ensure the social distancing and enhanced safety parameters that will be in place,” Bleck said.
The reentry committee looked at six key safety areas for returning to school: Operations, Transportation, Instruction, Student Services, Communication and Flexibility/Responsiveness.
The board had already approved additional operational expenses to Building Services Group for stepped up cleaning measures in all district buildings and safety protocols and extra cleaning on buses for the 2020-21 school year.
A recent parent survey indicated that parents wanted extra cleaning procedures in place.
Operations
Other operational considerations in the plan include stepping up each building’s air handling system to increase the circulation of outside air into buildings.
Student entrances will also be adjusted and regulated to include mandatory temperature checks and symptom monitoring.
Access to the school will be limited throughout the school day, and protocols for facility usage outside of the school day are established.
Non-essential visitors will be limited.
Parents will be asked to make appointments and schedule their visits to the school to secure meetings.
“We’re not trying to discourage families but we’re asking them to take the initiative to plan ahead,” said Bleck.
Within the school, shared objects will be limited and individual supplies and sanitation requirements will be in place. In addition to the increased daily and weekly protocols for cleaning staff, the district will supply disinfecting materials at all learning stations.
Use of communal spaces will be staggered, and scheduling will attempt to decrease roster numbers when possible.
Bleck said staff would model facemask usage while teaching and reinforcing healthy routines. Student masks are highly recommended.
Further mask protocols will be developed before the start of the year.
Physical spaces
Physical barriers will be installed where appropriate. Floor adhesives will be used for separation markings and posting for social distancing along with additional safety signage and sanitation stations.
Locker access will be limited and increased backpack use is encouraged.
There will also be spaces identified for PPE-related health needs and screening locations.
Bleck said for those families requesting transportation, buses will be equipped and disinfected daily or as needed. Assigned seating and masks or face coverings are expected and sanitary routines taught, reviewed and reinforced.
Those self-transporting can expect protocol for drop-off routines and locations and some modified entry procedures from past years.
Bleck said specific building level or area specifics were not intended to be part of the reentry review and that individual school personnel will support the final procedural expectations for students, parents and district employees.
Phases of risk
The district has modeled phases of risk color spectrums from Yellow, Orange and Red.
Yellow is low risk.
Within the low risk category, students will attend the traditional model with the enhanced standard of safety guidelines in place. Staff will also develop Google Classroom for hybrid instruction, and transportation will be provided.
Orange is moderate to high risk.
In the orange category, modified scheduling may be implemented to limit risk at one or more instructional levels.
Further limits on numbers and movement may be implemented. Increased building level safety protocols will be in place.
Transportation will be closely monitored and ‘to be determined’ decisions will be based on guidelines.
In the red category, a school closure will be ordered.
Students will return to digital and distance learning with added enhancements and structures learned from this past spring.
Increased communication and updates will occur, buildings will be closed to students and staff based on directives.
Student access to learning will be a priority.
“If we get an order that we need to close schools like we did last March, the traditional model would go to the digital distance learning model like we did last spring but, with more tools available to them to have that connectivity with their classroom teacher and resources,” Bleck said.
“We’ll take what we learned and apply it to our practices if we are in a position where we have to go digital distant learning but that would only be through a state order, or local government decision stating that we have to close our doors.
Realistically when we start the year, we’re probably going to be starting at the moderate to high risk phase,” said Bleck in an interview Wednesday, July 15.
Instructional options
During the preferred registration period from July 20 through Aug. 1, parents will be asked to choose between two instructional options.
Traditional at-school instruction with enhanced safety and health protocols in place will be Monday through Friday but also include preparations to go digital and distance learning when and if orders for closure take place.
If families choose the virtual-at-home learning option Bleck said, they are making a commitment to the grading period. If a situation changes, or a student is quickly identified as struggling, then a transition time and plan will be implemented.
“We can be creative and meet the needs of our families but education is ultimately a partnership. Both ends of the spectrum need to be moving in the same direction if you want the outcomes to be desirable,” Bleck said.
“If there is a family that sees the virtual at-home model as the option they want to pursue this means at home. When the family decides that is the route they would like to go for the circumstances that they are in now, the district will work with them to develop a learning plan for their child.
That may realistically look different for each student, depending on the needs and what they’re looking for.”
Bleck said if they choose at-home learning, guidance and building level administration will work with the families to develop the plan.
Registration underway
Bleck said the registration process for families is more important right now than ever before.
The district is asking families to register through their Skyward Family Access account by Aug. 1
“We encourage our families to actively register their children for school during the preferred registration time frame between July 20 and Aug. 1. That will allow us to appropriately assist in staffing programming, rosters and to work with families if they are seeking a virtual option and what that would look like prior to the school year,” said Bleck.
“The more students and families we can have registered during the preferred time frame the more prepared we will be to start the school year effectively.”