Ankeny Community School District answered questions about its plans to take a "hybrid" approach to the 2020 school year, balancing both in-person and online teaching in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
"We have been planning all summer long to create a plan that is agile, that is flexible, that is as seamless as possible when moving from one plan to another," said Jen Lindaman, the district's chief officer of Academic Services. "The reason is that we want to make this as smooth as possible for our learners and our teachers, and certainly for our community."
Iowa schools closed because of the virus beginning March 15, which continued through the rest of the 2019-2020 school year.
The spread of the novel coronavirus, which first hit Iowa in March, has not significantly slowed in the state. While some school districts had originally planned to start the 2020-2021 school year entirely remotely, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced last week that Iowa school districts must conduct at least half of their instruction for core academic subjects in-person.
Ankeny school district officials hosted an online "Return to Learn" forum Thursday afternoon to answer questions gathered from parents around the school district about what public health measures Ankeny schools will take to ensure students, teachers and their families stay safe.
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Over the summer, administration developed three plan for teaching in the upcoming school year: entirely remote and face-to-face models, as well as a hybrid model, which would use both methods. The plans were requested through the Iowa Department of Education of every school district, in preparation for the upcoming school year so that districts would be able to change course quickly as necessary in response to the spread of coronavirus.
"We prepared three models so that in the case ... that a student or staff at a particular school is diagnosed with COVID-19, we would be able to work with the Department of Public Health and transition to a remote learning model temporarily as needed," Lindaman said. "It gives us a means of continuous learning."
Out of the three models prepared, the Ankeny school administration recommended that the school district begins the year in a hybrid model, which they presented to the Ankeny school board Monday.
In the hybrid model, students are assigned to either "Group One" or "Group Two" and attend on-site classes on alternating days for day of the school calendar. Smaller class sizes will allow for more social distancing and less potential spread of disease, administrators believe.
Along with asking students to try to maintain at least 6 feet apart from one another, the district is also requiring students and staff wear face masks, barring any medical issues that may prevent them from safely wearing a facial covering.
In addition to increased sanitation and air circulation efforts, the district released guidelines on how each school will deal with symptomatic staff and students, which involve keeping the possibly infected people in an isolated area of the school until they are able to safely leave, then discussing with Polk County Public Health Department whether individuals schools need to be shut down on a short-term basis if positive cases are confirmed.
"We're working to follow best public healthy safety practices as best we can, and we're flexible in making sure that we take steps to make sure our students and our community are safe," said ACSD Chief Operations Officer Darin Haack.
Amy Dittmar, director of Elementary Programs at ACSD, said the district understands the difficulties families are facing, especially those with younger children, on custody while parents are at work.
The school district is currently working with local day cares and other child care providers for parents to connect with as needed.
"We've received many questions about why we do not have child care during the day on the hybrid model, on days when the kids are not on-site," Dittmar said. "We wanted to let you know that we do have a lack of space. We want to use all the space that we possibly can for our kids to spread out and follow social distancing guidelines."
But not all Ankeny parents want to start the school year with a hybrid model. As of Friday morning, over 1,300 people signed an online petition calling for a full return to in-person teaching. The petition has been up since Wednesday evening.
The petition, organized by mother Lydia Hornung and other parents, said the Ankeny school district did not survey families on what type of "Return to Learn" plan they would prefer, unlike other districts around the Des Moines area.
West Des Moines, Waukee, Indianola and other school districts are allowing parents to choose for their students to return to school full time, and the petition calls for ACSD to give parents the same option.
The petition argues children, especially elementary students, are not able to learn effectively through remote teaching, and that the "Hybrid Model" would not effectively prevent the spread of disease any more than having students return to schools in full.
Administration will recommend that the district starts out using the "Hybrid Model" at a special board meeting July 27, where the Ankeny school board will vote on a plan.
"This is an evolving and unprecedented time, and our kids are going to need more stability and routines now more than ever before," the petition reads. It calls for the Ankeny school board to vote "no" on the district's recommendation, and to draft a new full-time plan option.
School district officials asked families to read over the information posted on the "Return to Learn" webpage, and to submit questions if they need further information.
"We want to continue to put student learning first," Lindaman said. "Certainly safety is what we're planning all around, but student learning is our core work."
Robin Opsahl covers the eastern Des Moines metro for the Register. Reach them at ropsahl@registermedia.com or 515-284-8051. Support reporters who follow your community by becoming a subscriber. Sign up at DesMoinesRegister.com/Deal.
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