Marin’s public, private, independent and parochial schools are now being guided to plan for a full reopening of in-person classroom instruction in the fall.
“We’ve been working on this since the day that schools first closed on March 16,” Mary Jane Burke, Marin County superintendent of schools said. “All along, we’ve been trying to see what’s best for the students. What’s best for students is to be in school — it’s the right thing to do.”
The new guidance for students from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade is for children to be in class five days a week — a major departure from the two days a week envisioned under a so-called “hybrid” instructional plan. The hybrid plan was to combine the classroom instruction on two days with three days a week of distance learning to accommodate limiting classes to small “cohorts” of 12 students each — all physically distanced — within the school buildings.
But including distance learning was not the preferred choice, Burke said.
“Even with the amazing work of schools and parents, we know that remote learning was not working for all and that many students were being left behind,” Burke said Thursday in a statement. “We also know that the social emotional needs of our children are best met through the special relationships that are developed with their peers, their teachers, and school staff. The best place for students is in their schools.”
To make the five days per week of in-person instruction possible, all schools will follow a 30-point coronavirus safety protocol structure released Thursday, said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County public health officer.
That calls for larger but still stable student cohort groups that don’t intermingle with the general student population, masks to be worn by all staff and all children from TK-12th grades — except where contraindicated — daily health screenings and rigorous hand-washing, sanitizing and physical distancing.
“We still want every child to be part of a cohort,” Willis said Thursday. Cohorts are needed, he said, to reduce intermixing with the general student population and thus lower infection risk. With cohorts, if someone becomes infected with the virus, only the cohort will be quarantined, rather than the whole school.
Willis said the new guidance increases the maximum cohort size for elementary school students from the prior limit of 12 students to 25 — or about the same as a normal classroom. For middle and high schools, the cohort can be several classes grouped together — depending on each school’s schedule and curricula. The larger cohort is needed in the upper grades because it is not practical for those students to be restricted to a single class for the whole year, he said.
Within all classes, the students, with masks on, are to stay 4 to 6 feet apart; teachers are to stay 6 feet away from students. Teachers may visit more than one cohort, but the students will be required to stay in their groups.
“Using public health standards, we think we can do this safely,” Willis said. Willis told the Marin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that he is releasing the schools reopening guidance this month so that administrators, families, staff and students could begin planning for the fall term — scheduled to start the third week in August.
“We’re partnering with our leaders in education to think creatively, following this guidance,” Willis said. “Classrooms will look different than they did last year, but they’ll be open.”
In addition to the masks and physical distancing, schools will alter previously shared spaces such as cafeterias, playgrounds and recess yards so that children eat lunch in their classrooms or outside and recreation areas will be coordinated so that students stay in their cohorts. Sharing of schools supplies and books will also be limited.
Burke said a team of Marin educators, public health specialists and staff at the Marin County Office of Education have focused on developing and testing the guidelines so that distance learning will be used only if needed as a backup. The MCOE has set up a web section, “Rethinking Schools,” on its website at marinschools.org, where all the video trainings on various topics and guidance is available publicly.
Willis and Burke said all schools will receive generous supplies of personal protective equipment, including masks, hand sanitizer and disinfectants.
Marin superintendents were briefed on the guidance in an online conference call Wednesday.
“We understand our students need a personalized approach, and we know that we will have many students with varying needs that we plan to support as we enter the 2020-21 school year,” Kimberly Berman, superintendent of the Mill Valley School District, said Thursday in an email.
“Remote learning was a challenging experience,” Berman added. “We are grateful for the efforts of our school community, and we are learning from this experience through our transition task force.”
Larkspur-Corte Madera School District Superintendent Brett Geithman discussed the new guidance with district trustees at a board meeting Wednesday night.
According to a recent parent survey, about 2% of parents are not comfortable sending their kids back to classrooms at all, while another 27% “may not” allow their kids to return to school.
Geithman said new research indicates that the coronavirus transmission rate for adults 75 and older was “10,000 times higher” than it was for elementary school children. He said the district schools will use outdoor spaces as much as possible to lower the risk even further.
“Our students are going to come to school with masks on, and they will have very limited movement from classroom to classroom,” Geithman told trustees. “Schools will look different, but our goal is to get kids to school every day.”
San Rafael City Schools Superintendent Jim Hogeboom said he will be sending out a letter this week on the guidance to the school community and discussing it with the district trustees at a board meeting on Monday.
“As we previously shared, we have a reentry task force that is developing a plan for reopening schools in as safe and academically equitable manner as possible,” Hogeboom said in the letter. “(That is) in accordance with Marin Health and Human Services’ recommendations and in collaboration with our SRCS community.”
In Novato, Novato Federation of Teachers President Mariah Fisher said she was concerned the district was so hammered by the 10% budget cut imposed by the state for 2020-21 that it was hard to see how officials could pay for the new in-person classroom structure.
“How do we address safety and cohort sizes, with a $7 million reduction in revenue?” Fisher said in an email.
“I polled the certificated staff in Novato: 57% of certificated staff took the survey,” she said. “Out of that 57%, 20% do not feel comfortable going into the classroom in the fall and hope to be 100% distance learning. 40% hope to be in the classroom full time, and the remaining 40% range in the hybrid options.”
According to Fisher, teachers need to be able to trust that every safety precaution is taken.
“To go into the classroom is to potentially put ourselves, our families and our students at risk,” she said. “We are working with students that range from 4 years old to 18 years old. To go back is to put a huge responsibility on these children.
“Do we trust administration to get this right?” she said. “Doing ‘our best’ won’t cut it. It has to be done right — or people could suffer.
“I want to be in my room, with my students as much as anyone,” added Fisher, a district parent. “I want my three children back on campus. But if this is rushed, or (if) returning becomes more important than safety — we will regret our path. Safety must be before everything.”
Morgan Agnew, president-elect of the San Rafael Federation of Teachers, had a similar comment.
“Some teachers I’ve heard from are wary; many others are downright afraid,” Agnew said in an email. “While we desperately want to get back to the classroom, we’re concerned that these guidelines don’t take into account all the realities of running a school.
“Teachers are flexible and resourceful,” he added. “We want guidelines strict enough to ensure the safety of our students, our families, and ourselves, and we’ll find a way to deliver a quality education within those restrictions, be it in person or online.”
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Marin schools plan for full in-classroom reopening in fall - Marin Independent Journal
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