Masks will be optional when students make their August return to class in the Marysville School District and they will need every unrestricted breath as educators will be pushing students to make up lost ground.
Superintendent Diane Allen made her recommendations for the return to school at Thursday night’s Marysville School Board meeting. Officials also heard a presentation that showed student performance last year was behind the previous year, particularly for marginalized groups.
Allen recommended that masks would be optional next year but an emphasis on social distancing will remain in place. This means that teachers will attempt to keep three feet of space between students, though she admitted this will be difficult in some classes.
Allen also said that volunteers and visitors will also be allowed to enter buildings again, extra-curriculars will return to normal and field trips will be re-instituted. The superintendent said enhanced cleaning protocols will remain in place, COVID tests will be readily available in the district and routine ventilation checks will be carried out.
Parents will also be asked to closely monitor the health of their students, keeping them home if they appear sick. Board member Brian Luke said keeping students home sometimes creates hardships on parents who must miss work and he asked what happens if a child shows symptoms after being dropped off at school. Allen said certain minor symptoms may not result in a child being sent home, but if a student shows certain indicators such as a fever, the parent would be called to pick them up.
Allen said her recommendations were vetted by Union County Health Commissioner Jason Orcena. Allen reported that the impact on Union County youth has been minimal from the virus as seven students under the age of 18 have been hospitalized since the start of the pandemic, with no deaths. She also said 50% of the county’s adults have been vaccinated, including 90% among the most vulnerable populations.
Allen also said vaccination clinics are set up for July 23 and 31 at Marysville High School for families wishing to have students over the age of 12 vaccinated.
Luke emphasized that all students will follow the same regulations.
“Nobody is going to be asked their vaccination status,” he said.
Allen said that the issue of wearing masks while being bused to and from schools still requires clarification. She said transportation falls under federal guidelines and the district still needs to determine how to proceed with relaxing restrictions on buses.
The return to normal classroom instruction will be needed to get students back up to speed, according to state testing data.
District official Mark Gallagher gave a presentation on student performance last year when compared to the year before the pandemic. Gallagher said there was a drop in testing data for students last year, but it was fairly slight for traditional students.
There were some more significant drops in testing for older students, in areas such as geometry. Board president Sue Devine said while parents were able to help younger students understand work at home, it would be more difficult for higher level subjects.
The area of concern in the testing data fell within two subgroups, economically disadvantaged students and those receiving special education services. Each of those groups makes up about 18 percent of the total student population.
Gallagher said both of those groups saw increased drops in performance compared to other students. Allen said there is already an achievement gap for those subgroups during traditional years but the issue was widened by the pandemic.
Luke also noted that he had seen data that showed students in the full-remote digital academy also fell behind. While Gallagher didn’t have the exact data, officials acknowledge there were issues in the program that needed to be addressed.
Allen said the schools had plans to attack each issue the data revealed.
The 70-plus digital academy students signed up for next year will have some type of in-person component built into their school week. She said getting older students to commit to in-person engagement online was difficult. Also some students in the digital academy simply did not participate in appropriate testing.
For economically disadvantaged students and those with special needs the battle began with expanded options this summer, where 600 students signed up for additional learning opportunities at every grade level.
But the real weapon against the COVID slide, according to Gallagher, will be the return to traditional instruction and Marysville’s personalized learning approach, which identifies specific needs for each student and provides the appropriate instruction to catch them up.
“Doing personalized learning pays dividends,” Gallagher said.