Classes amid coronavirus? Here’s what JoCo school districts are considering for the fall
Will Kansas schools be ready to reopen in mid-August as scheduled? Maybe an even bigger question: Will students, parents and teachers be ready?
If you thought this spring was rife with uncertainty, closing schools was a relatively easy call. Reopening them will be one of the most difficult, delicate decisions our education leaders ever make. There are so many moving parts, and so much at stake — particularly everyone’s health.
And there appear to be very few ideal options.
As of now, Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission school districts are planning for three coronavirus contingencies: opening buildings normally, albeit with some changes in protocol; continuing the distance learning that began in the spring; or some combination of the two.
Each of the state’s school districts will decide for itself what to do, although as incoming Blue Valley Superintendent Dr. Tonya Merrigan notes in a video released on Wednesday, decisions will be informed by the guidance of the CDC, state and local health departments and the Kansas State Department of Education. The department is set to release its reopening guidance on July 10.
“At this point, our schools are moving forward with the plan that schools will be open this fall,” says Denise Kahler, director of communications and recognition programs for the Kansas State Department of Education.
“We will use all three of those pieces of guidance to plan and to look at what our schools look like in the fall,” Merrigan said in the video.
Blue Valley parents asked to speak out
But there’s a fourth piece of guidance Blue Valley will be using: The school district has emailed parents a link to an anonymous online survey for them to share their own thoughts about reopening.
Respondents also can rate other people’s thoughts. Among the highest-rated responses is one reminding school officials that parents need to know the district’s plan sooner rather than later. “Working parents need to know if they are going to be responsible for educating their children at home again this fall,” the commenter wrote. Other highly rated comments urge better quality and more frequent virtual teaching, and more uniformity and predictability in how teachers communicate and get lesson plans to students electronically.
Districts and teachers had to slap together this spring’s distance learning efforts, and they should be heartily applauded for it. Parents are clearly expecting districts to up their digital game going forward.
“Many families are working full-time again and do not have time to be the teacher as well,” wrote one Blue Valley respondent.
“We want and need every single person who is watching this to take this survey and let us know what you’re thinking — how you’re feeling,” Merrigan tells the video’s viewers, “any ideas that you have, so that we can be assured that we’ve got your voice in this process as well.”
It’s a great idea to seek that input — not just to take parents’ temperature about sending their kids back to school with the novel coronavirus still about, but to gauge how many families might opt not to do it. A national poll warns that as many as 60% of K-12 parents are likely to consider homeschooling or distance learning, with 30% saying they’re “very likely” to do so.
That’s a mammoth unknown for district administrators, but it’s not the only one: Another USA TODAY/Ipsos poll indicates that 20% of teachers are unlikely to return to the classroom.
And even if schools do reopen, how much social distancing will be required — and how do you do that in crowded classrooms, lunchrooms and hallways? Staggered schedules? Decreased student movement? Having students report on alternate days? How does distance learning fit in?
COVID-19 classrooms ‘to look a little different’
Then you throw in the special needs of many students. Amie Bybee, parent of a Blue Valley special education student and co-chair of the Blue Valley Special Education Advisory Council, says she has great confidence in the district’s and teachers’ ability to plan and program for her son. But amid COVID-19, it’s a tremendous task.
“This is a difficult time for our kids,” Bybee said. “They thrive on structure, and the loss of their everyday schedule results in increased behaviors.”
And what about buses? Will distancing even be attempted there, especially when it’s not likely to be possible in classrooms either?
It’s amazing, the dizzying amount of no-right-answer questions local school districts need to wrangle with in the coming weeks about if, when and how to open.
“We have to plan for any scenario that we might face,” says David A. Smith, Shawnee Mission schools chief communications officer, “and so we are planning to return to school, to continue with learning in a distance environment, or some hybrid of the two. We do not currently have any information that would tell us that one of those scenarios is more likely than another, and we have not yet finalized plans for any of them.”
Shawnee Mission is planning its own update from the superintendent next week, informed by recent surveys and online exchanges with parents and staff, Smith said.
In the thicket of all this uncertainty, two things seem clear enough: Distance learning will have to remain an option for those either physically or psychologically unable or unwilling to participate in a physical school setting this fall. And those who do will be returning to schools that will, in some ways, be unfamiliar territory.
“The classrooms that everybody left before spring break this year are going to look a little different,” Merrigan told Blue Valley viewers. “But that is our goal, is that we have that happen. Our preference is the very first option.”
And that option has the faint, quaint sound of normalcy to it: Back to school.
This story was originally published May 29, 2020 at 5:00 AM.