If Hybrid Model Is OK'd For All Grades, It's A Likely Way Forward

GUILFORD, CT —In a Zoom public meeting on Guilford schools’ reopening attended by hundreds, scores of questions were answered, though for some of those queries, the answer was candidly, “We don’t know yet.”

The plan is fluid and will change and evolve, Guilford Public Schools superintendent Dr. Paul Freeman said. “If you hear, ‘We don’t know yet,’” the schools are “still working on it.”

"Parents are just really anxious and highly concerned,” Freeman said in response to a parent comment. “All I can say is us too, but we’re channeling that worry into work. We’ll figure it out. We will get there. We will adjust along the way. We’re going to go through this. Together.”

In the two-hour long virtual gathering of the community and educators, Freeman said that the latest announcement Monday from Gov. Ned Lamont that a hybrid model - where half of students would attend in-person on Mondays and Tuesday, the other half would attend in-person on Thursdays and Fridays (with Wednesday reserved for thief schools) and learning would be remote the days they aren't attending in-person classes - is a model the district would embrace. They just need clarification from state education officials that that plan would be for all schools and not just the high school.

“Twenty-four hours ago all districts were going to open fully,” Freeman said, “Now it appears that there’s some latitude, flexibility. We’re looking into it” He said that if this option is acceptable for all grades, “That’s what will consider in Guilford.”

Freeman and other school officials meet Wednesday with school principals, hundreds of teachers, and, Freeman said, have talks with the leaders of 20 other shoreline school district to see if there can be collaboration among all to make a region-wide hybrid back-to-school model work.

The plan now calls for a full return to school should the spread of COVID-19 remain flat or low, as it is in the state now, a hybrid if the infection rate should begin to inch up, or full distance learning should community spread spike. So, the virus’ spread will dictate what happens some Sept. 10.

In any event, parents will have the choice to send kids to school or keep them at home for remote learning.

For hours, Freeman, board of education members, and many other school district fielded questions posed in the Zoom chat.

The very first question was if Major League Baseball cannot control the spread, how can schools?

The question was in reference to a decision to postpone games after numerous members of the Miami Marlins tested positive for coronavirus.

“Right now Connecticut has some of the best numbers if not the best on viral spread in the United States,” Freeman noted. “We’ll only do what we believe is safe and appropriate.”

Here are some top questions posed by families:

Why aren’t schools doing temperature checks? COVID-19 testing?

Freeman said federal and state health officials and epidemiologists contend temperature checks are “not reliable as a way of screening.” Given that people can be positive for the virus while asymptomatic, a student or educator without a fever might suggest they are not ill and cannot transmit the virus. And as to testing, Freeman said there are many reasons why schools cannot do that including that quick tests have low reliability, local school districts don't have the authority to require testing and there’s no “capacity” to conduct testing even if it was permissible: “That would have required federal action months ago.”

What happens when a student becomes sick in school?

If a student or staff gets sick and has a fever determined by the school nurse, thy’ll be kept in an isolation room and family will be contacted. This is still an in-progress plan and will be updated.

Will schools be doing contact tracing?

As in-class instruction will be a cohort model - where small groups of students are together all day and social mixing social opportunities are severely limited - it “facilitates contact tracing” Freeman said as it’s “easier in cohorting since they're all together.”

Can parents choose what’s best for their child? Can they change their minds?

The short answer is “yes” to both.

Freeman said in the reopening parent survey, 65 percent felt confident about kids going back to a full school opening, 10 percent were not, and 25 percent were just not sure. He said that parent feelings may change depending on the spread of the virus and what model is used come Sept. 10 saying people just need to let the district know what works best for their family. And while he said it’s not practical for parents to change week-to-week, “If you decide to keep your child home in the first week of school, you haven't committed to the distance learning platform all year long.”

In other words, parents are not locked in to a learning model.

“If your child stays home September into October but local figures (virus spread rates) continue to be good, if the national figures become better, and if you feel confident with what you're hearing,” then families may opt to return kids to classrooms.

How will social distancing work?

Bottom line is school officials, “Can’t promise” there will be six feet of distance, or even three feet.

What if a child refuses to wear a mask?

Freeman said this may be among the most important issue, and he hopes that mask-wearing will be reinforced and supported at family level. He said students will be “kindly and compassionately reminded” about the importance of wearing masks. Freeman said the “social compact” will be explained to kids.

“We have responsibilities to each other in Guilford and our schools. A child has a responsibility to their classmates, their teachers.” Freeman said the plan is to address mask-wearing in the first few days of school, “An enormously important lesson we will not shy away from.”

“The social compact is important,” he said adding students who habitually refuse to wear their masks will not be made to leave school. “We don’t plan on suspending students. We plan on collaborating with students.”

Students who claim a medical exemption to mask-wearing will have to provide a doctor’s note.

And though schools will have masks for those who do not, the district is asking that families help by providing their child with a washable mask. Freeman said the cost to supply fresh masks every day for students and educators could cost a quarter of a million dollars.

How are schools going to pay for all of this?

The town’s Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance told the schools “do what you need to do,” Freeman said.

Board of Ed chair Kate Balestracci said that, “Without knowing exactly what plan we will be going with come September, this is a very hard thing to nail down, but we will be working with the Board of Finance w as we start to really get a better handle on what reopening costs.”

Are teachers involved in the reopen process?

Freeman said teacher input is “enormously important.” He said there are a total of six unions in the district with which the Board of Education has contracts and schools must “meet the conditions of those contracts.”

“We are not necessarily meeting with them to secure their agreement, we're meeting with them to talk about the impact that this plan as on the agreed upon conditions that exist in their contracts. We’re required to have those conversations. We need to come to an understanding that a plan either fits within the conditions of the contract as written and if there're areas where those conditions are substantially different, then we need to talk about how we're going to accommodate those differences. So the teachers are enormously important partners in all of this. The teacher voice is enormously important on how this plan shakes out and it was important in getting us to where we are tonight, and it will be important in moving forward.”

What about kids' emotional and social health?

Freeman and others said that students’ emotional health and well-being is the priority. Freeman related his own experience with his high school age son noting that “happiness and well-being is more important than academics.”

Trauma-informed discussions will be a priority: “They’ve gone through something none of us have had to do.”

How can families and the community help?

Check on kids’ well-being, help them find ways to have fun, donations, tutoring, and mentoring as well as supporting the “social compact” to care for and respect each other.

Can parents who withdraw kids to homeschool come back?

“The answer is an emphatic, ‘yes,’” Freeman said. “We absolutely understand that that even in normal times some families in the community for a variety of reasons take advantage of a private school opportunity or homeschool opportunity. As Guilford residents, you can always come back.”

How will breakfast and lunch work?

Breakfast will be a “pick-up and go” or can be delivered to the classroom. Students place their lunch order, hot or cold, while in homeroom in the morning and meals are delivered to the classroom.

Many other questions were asked and answered. Watch the full meeting here:

Read the full GPS reopen plan, as it currently stands, here:

Guilford Public Schools Reo... by Ellyn Santiago on Scribd