Colleen27
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2007
We had our first conversations about fall planning last night in a steering committee meeting, and it is a mess! Some background: I'm on the committee of a small, parochial school. Our largest classes are in the mid-teens, and we serve students K through 8, and our building has extra classrooms (currently used for "specials") that could be converted for additional space. So we basically have every advantage in dealing with this, compared to larger or public schools.
Right now, we're being told by the regional superintendent to prepare for hybrid learning and to maintain distancing in the classroom. But developing a workable plan for that is going to be rough. The thing that makes the most sense is to have the middle schoolers, who share the same three teachers, attend on some days and the lower elem attend on the other - the thinking is 2 days one week, 3 the next, switching off so both groups get equal time. That would also allow those teachers to be available for online learning support on their grades' off days. But that means that some families who have kids at both levels won't have them on the same schedule, and if one of those families does come down with the virus, the whole school gets exposed because the kids are attending with both groups. But to split the kids along different lines, with half of each grade attending each day so that kids from the same family are on the same schedule would mean teachers are unavailable to students learning at home on the other half of the days. Also, art and music and tech are looking like they'll be completely impossible - too hard to do in the ordinary classroom, too high risk in terms of equipment and cleaning - so those are just going to go away.
We're also being told to expect a 20% enrollment drop, more if we aren't allowed to start the year with at least some in-person learning, though that might be offset as the consequences of the gutted public school funding our state is currently proposing become clear. I don't see how the public schools will be able to be anything other than fully online, with a 25% budget cut coming and class sizes already in the high 20s or low 30s. There's not enough time, space or staff to reduce class sizes enough to comply with the distancing guidelines we're being told to expect, and there won't be any money to reconfigure spaces or hire additional teachers or aides to make it work.
Right now, we're being told by the regional superintendent to prepare for hybrid learning and to maintain distancing in the classroom. But developing a workable plan for that is going to be rough. The thing that makes the most sense is to have the middle schoolers, who share the same three teachers, attend on some days and the lower elem attend on the other - the thinking is 2 days one week, 3 the next, switching off so both groups get equal time. That would also allow those teachers to be available for online learning support on their grades' off days. But that means that some families who have kids at both levels won't have them on the same schedule, and if one of those families does come down with the virus, the whole school gets exposed because the kids are attending with both groups. But to split the kids along different lines, with half of each grade attending each day so that kids from the same family are on the same schedule would mean teachers are unavailable to students learning at home on the other half of the days. Also, art and music and tech are looking like they'll be completely impossible - too hard to do in the ordinary classroom, too high risk in terms of equipment and cleaning - so those are just going to go away.
We're also being told to expect a 20% enrollment drop, more if we aren't allowed to start the year with at least some in-person learning, though that might be offset as the consequences of the gutted public school funding our state is currently proposing become clear. I don't see how the public schools will be able to be anything other than fully online, with a 25% budget cut coming and class sizes already in the high 20s or low 30s. There's not enough time, space or staff to reduce class sizes enough to comply with the distancing guidelines we're being told to expect, and there won't be any money to reconfigure spaces or hire additional teachers or aides to make it work.
If things are not, one of my kids will be totally fine with that while one will be difficult. And we'll get through it, anyway, but I just don't want to really worry about that now, when I haven't finished getting them through this school year yet. 
