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Deep Dive
From tents to bus rides: Social distancing in school reopening plans
Safety measures and logistics will stretch already tight budgets as
districts weigh staggered schedules, outdoor lessons and more.
Katie Navarra
Aug. 11, 2020
Mark A. Griffith said he hasn’t slept much since the COVID-19 crisis
first hit in March. The director of schools for rural Marion County,
Tennessee, has had all of his attention focused on reading
recommendations on how to safely reopen schools.
The district has delayed its start from August to after Labor Day as
cases increase in the area. When students arrive, they’ll find their
classrooms look different, with plexiglass separating teachers from the
group and in between desks. One of the biggest challenges, Griffith
said, is conflicting guidance — that and the funding needed to meet new
health and safety protocols.
“For the first time in 13 years as a school superintendent, I
have not been able to give my teachers a raise because of the fear of
the unknowns, and I hate that beyond measure,” he said. “We are getting
$900,000 from the state to offset some things, but it is very
restrictive in how those monies are utilized.”
Even before the expenses for personal protective gear and building
upgrades, the district’s budget was already $204,000 less than the
initial estimate from the state, according to Griffith.
“We’re already behind the eight ball from the get-go,” he said.
Kansas City Public Schools Superintendent Mark T. Bedell said his
district has transformed one of its elementary schools with hand
sanitizers, social distancing signage, touchless water fountains and
classroom set ups to serve as a model for the rest of the district,
which has also delayed its reopening to Sept. 8.
When school resumes in Kansas City, Missouri, all 15,000 students will
receive a “care package” with hand sanitizer, gloves, masks and water
bottles for use with the touchless water fountains. Ideally, Bedell
would also like to have plexiglass installed in classrooms between
desks. However, the approved school budget doesn’t include the $550,000
price tag. The district has submitted funding requests to state and
local funders, hoping major funders in the wealthy community will step
up.
“If we want the economy to recover and folks to get back to work, this
is where all need to come together,” he said. “The more we can
demonstrate that we safety procedures in place more likely teachers
ready to come back and parents feel comfortable sending their kids to
school.”
Scheduling shift
Limiting large groupings is the focus of attention for schools
nationwide as they gear up for bringing students back. However, how
school leaders stagger schedules and reduce class sizes is as unique as
the communities they serve.
Unlike Kansas City, which is bringing students in on alternating days,
the Ithaca City School District in New York will be “all in” or “all
out,” according to Superintendent Luvelle Brown. For Ithaca, staggered
schedules will be used to manage how students arrive and exit the
campus rather than alternating days.
“Some students may arrive at 7:50 and the next group at 7:55 to avoid an influx of arrivals at the same time,” he said.
Brown’s district has one million square feet and can redesign spaces so
students are spread out to achieve social distancing. However, students
will be grouped in cohorts, and teachers will rotate classrooms in the
elementary grades. But Brown has no intention of installing plexiglass
barriers in classrooms — between teachers or student desks.
“We are not going to be engineering correctional centers,” he said. “We
have worked too hard to go back to putting up barriers. We will not
traumatize our students.”
Refurbishing "mothballed" buildings
School consolidations and closures have brought the total number of
public schools to 98,000, compared to 248,000 in 1929-1930, according
to National Center for Education Statistics data. While those numbers
do not necessarily reflect the number of school buildings that have
been closed, there are thousands of buildings that have been taken out
of commission due to population fluctuations and repair costs.
The possibility of bringing some of those buildings back online to provide more space, however, is highly unlikely.
Bedell said his district will begin reusing one building that was
recently rented to a charter school. But the facility requires minimal
work to be put back into service. Aside from the burden of repair
costs, reopening an older building would mean doubling staff and
teachers.
“The budget isn’t going to support that, especially when parents are
opting out of public schools. It is harder to justify how to add the
[full-time employees],” he said.
As it is, school administrators are grappling with how to manage
staffing needs, as substitutes will be needed as requests for leave are
submitted or when a teacher gets sick or has an immune system concern.
“As a rural district, we don’t know how this is going to hit us. We
have to look at how we’re going to rotate those individuals so they
don’t become full-time employees,” said Griffith. “I wholeheartedly
want to take care of teachers first and foremost. But if a leave of
absence is requested, it’s going to be a situation where we’re paying
two teachers at once.”
Learning among the great outdoors
Moving classes outside is also an option. Bedell knows for certain that
when students return, certain music and physical education classes will
meet outside, weather permitting. Griffith is considering using his
schools' stadiums for lunch instead of the traditional cafeterias.
Some school facilities, like Brown’s in central New York, include
outdoor amphitheaters that will be utilized until inclement weather
hits. The Homestead School Montessori School in Glen Spey, New York,
purchased tipis to provide additional teaching space and encourage
ventilation as the school looked at creative solutions for getting back
to school. But Brown said renting tents or erecting outdoor structures
is cost-prohibitive for his suburban public school district.
“The guidelines even for tents are pretty restrictive in our state,”
Brown explained. “They need as much ventilation as other spaces, and
those can be cost prohibitive and onerous.”
Transportation remains a persistent challenge
Classrooms are only part of the equation. Transporting students to and
from school is another. Brown sees this as the most challenging part of
getting back to school for his district.
“We are already facing a bus driver shortage. We can’t find enough
drivers irrespective of having enough buses,” he said. “Cutting the
number of young people on the bus in half is going to be difficult for
us, and doubling routes means some will be getting there later.”
Brown and other district officials are asking the community for support
by asking to drive their children when possible, and encouraging those
who can drive or even walk to school to do so.
“This is where our district needs our community support,” he said. “So far we’ve gotten significantly positive feedback.”
The Kansas City district contracts with a transportation company, so
Bedell isn’t as concerned about being able to provide transportation as
needed. In rural districts like Griffith’s, where students have longer
travel times, figuring out how to socially distance on the bus is more
of a challenge.
“We are advocating on behalf of parents transporting students,” he said. “That is going to be a task within itself.”
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