District will make decision on startup plan on Aug. 3
There were three big take-aways from Marysville’s plan for reopening schools: Masks will be worn by everyone in school buildings; there will be an extended remote learning break from Thanksgiving through Jan. 19; and learning will likely be impacted for the entire year.
The Marysville Board of Education approved a plan for reopening Thursday, which involves four different scenarios ranging from in-school classes to learning from home. The district will have four levels that can be adjusted quickly districtwide or can be implemented building-by-building.
None of the plans for the coming year involved returning to pre-COVID school operations. Board member Brian Luke asked if the district anticipates the virus to be a threat throughout the year.
“We would anticipate that, yes,” superintendent Diane Allen said.
She said the idea behind the four models is that the district will be able to negotiate the changing restrictions created by the virus. She said the virus will impact the local residents directly and the schools need to keep educating children in spite of that.
“We’re pretty convinced that someone will get COVID this year, whether that be a student or staff member,” Allen said.
Level 1 will be the least restrictive model the schools will fall under. Under that plan students will report to school for regular classes, but all staff members and students will wear cloth masks, including on buses.
While all students in grades 7-12 will wear masks at all times, some concessions will be made for children in grade 6 and below. Those students must wear masks in hallways and classrooms, but teachers can choose to allow “mask breaks” for certain activities. Allen said the district is also looking at some options such as dividers that would allow more frequent mask breaks in class for younger students.
The superintendent said there will be an appeal process for the parents concerned about the mask, but the alternative will be that a face shield must be worn.
Under Level 1 the schools will maintain 6-foot social distancing, emphasize hand washing and sanitizing, utilize grab-and-go breakfasts and diversified lunch periods, eliminate shared supplies and computers and cancel large school gatherings such as pep rallies.
Level 2 will be a hybrid schedule that will involve 50 percent of the student body to be in buildings on certain days. Students will either attend class on Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday. Each Wednesday will be used to sanitize the buildings.
On the days children are not in class they would use remote learning, similar to the end of the last school year but with more structure. Allen said teachers will have more specific times that students must get online to meet with teachers and those sessions will be used to gauge attendance. She said some students will be afforded flexibility based on internet accessibility.
Allen also said building principals are working diligently to ensure that students in the same households attend classes on the same days if Level 2 is enacted.
Under Level 2 students deemed to be most in need of in-person instruction will attend class every day.
Under the Level 3 plan at-risk students will continue to attend classes every day, while all other students will switch to remote learning. Under this level all extracurriculars will also be canceled and a plan to provide meals to free and reduced-price lunch students will be enacted.
Under Level 4 all students would go to a remote learning schedule. Allen said this model could be to an individual class in the event of a positive test, while the remainder of a building remained on another level.
Under the plan the district also approved a modification to the school calendar which will see all students take part in remote learning from Thanksgiving break until Jan. 19. This idea models what some colleges are doing, Allen said, in order to limit community exposure that could be created by holiday travel.
Allen said the plan for the holiday gap is being put in place now, but could be eliminated if it appears unnecessary.
District officials are currently trying to determine which level the district will begin under when school resumes on Aug. 24. Allen said the district will announce an official decision on the level on Aug. 3.
The superintendent also stressed that the levels being enacted will not be directly tied to the state of Ohio’s county virus levels. She said that the state data will be considered, but will be just one factor in the district’s decision on how to educate children. Allen said the state levels can change rapidly and the district would rather not switch models week-by-week.
“We don’t think that’s in the right mind of students and learning,” Allen said.
Allen said the plan for the various levels were created from the input of a parent and staff task force, a local medical professional team and the Union County Health Department. She said the groups also used the results of parent surveys, which saw more than 4,000 responses from the district’s roughly 5,200 families.
Allen said the decision of parents voiced by the surveys actually allowed the district to move forward with the Level 1 plan.
For example, families with safety concerns will be allowed to keep their children home and enroll them in the district’s virtual academy. The survey showed that somewhere in the neighborhood of 15% of families would be taking that route.
Without the students staying home, the district would not have enough space in some buildings to enforce 6-foot social distancing in classrooms.
The results of the survey also showed that many parents would be willing to adjust their transportation needs, allowing the district to more easily shuttle students to and from school despite capacity restrictions on buses.
The district is also keeping its School Age Child Care (SACC) program in place for providing supervision for students before and after school. The program is also being modified to assist parents under the Level 2 hybrid schedule.
The district will be allowing a limited number of students to enroll in a program that will allow them to attend SACC programming on their two off days from school. The program will likely operate from the high school, but will not be offered on Wednesdays when all buildings are deep cleaned.