Back to classrooms
Facilities have been closed for a year. Here’s how they’ll look when students return in April.
In a lot of ways, Dodd Elementary School in Allentown looks ready for students to start walking its halls again.
Little paw prints on the floor show children where to walk, signs indicate the maximum number of students allowed per classroom and most classrooms already have seats set 6 feet apart.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused Allentown School District to shutter its buildings to 16,500 students for more than a year but it will reopen its doors in just a few weeks. Under a hybrid schedule, elementary students will return April 19, and middle and high school students return April 26. Half the students will attend school Mondays and Tuesdays, and the other half Thursdays and Fridays. All students will be remote Wednesdays so custodians can deep clean the buildings.
Unlike other districts, Allentown, the region’s largest and poorest, was unable to offer in-person lessons when this school year started. Instead,
Allentown students have conducted lessons virtually while district officials worked on reopening plans, which included increasing airflow in many of the aging buildings. Allentown lacks air conditioning in a number of its schools, some of which date to the late 1800s. Some upgrades were made possible because of a $2 million Lehigh County Covid19 relief block grant.
More than 630 students are enrolled at Dodd, Principal Katrina Griffin, said. Under the hybrid option, 182 students will attend Monday and Tuesday and 172 will attend Thursday and Friday. Some children with special needs will attend four days a week rather than two, she added.
Masks are required in all schools and the district will provide students with one if needed. Extras will also be provided if a child needs a replacement.
At Dodd Elementary, students will be given lanyards they can hang their masks on during lunch. Griffin said the goal is to decrease the chances of students losing or sharing masks.
There have also been some additions and upgrades made to the school. In the office, there is now a plexiglass screen at the desk. Water bottle filling stations, purchased with the county grant, will replace the traditional water fountains that children often put their mouths on. Griffin said teachers will have disposable cups available if students forget to bring a bottle or lose it. Hand sanitizer stations are in every classroom.
Students will be screened daily for COVID-19 symptoms using an app the district commissioned. In the nurse’s office at Dodd Elementary, a quarantine room is set up for students who show symptoms while they wait to be picked up.
Frank Derrick, principal of South Mountain Middle School, said about half of the school’s roughly 1,200 students will return for in-person learning.
Every South Mountain classroom will have a sign on the door indicating the square footage and the maximum student capacity of the room, which ranges from 11 students to 22. Derrick said every room has the capacity to offer 6 feet of distance for each student.
Although the CDC recently relaxed guidance to say students can safely sit 3 feet apart, Allentown is keeping children 6 feet apart because safety plans were made that way.
At South Mountain, students will stay in cohorts, even when changing classrooms throughout the day, to reduce potential opportunities for viral spread, Derrick said. He added they staggered classroom transitions so only one grade is moving through the halls at a time.
Derrick said there have been some challenges in planning for students’ return, specifically in the form of different guidance being given by state and federal agencies. But he said planning for only 300 students on a day with social distancing in place is much easier than planning for 600 students per day.
There is concern about the anxiety some students and teachers may face while returning to a school, especially if they’ve spent much of the last year at home. He said to help this, school officials will hold a parent’s night and give tours of the school soon.
“I think we’ll be good to go when kids come back,” Derrick said.