Heading back to class

School districts will use fully remote learning model until after Labor Day

All school districts in Taos County will be heading back into the classroom after the Labor Day weekend –– that is, of course, if parents and students feel it is safe to do so.

Peñasco Independent School District will begin the school year on Aug. 11 but in a fully remote

setting, according to a letter written by superintendent Lisa Hamilton to students and parents in the district. The plan is for students, starting Sept. 8, to choose one of two options – either a combination of two days of learning in person and two days learning at home via online or a “fully remote, stay-athome learning program.”

Taos Municipal Schools, which at press time (July 15) will have presented its back-to-school plans to the school board, will begin heading back into the classroom on Sept. 8, the day after the holiday weekend. Fully remote learning begins on Aug. 13.

TMS superintendent Lillian Torrez said that the plan for students will include two different options, much like the other districts in Taos County.

Changing models

“We are going to allow parents to decide if they want distance learning only or the model that combines blended learning faceto-face (once a week) with distance learning together,” Torrez said. “Either way will work once the parents make the decision. We will begin calling every family when secretaries get back on July 15. Right now, about a third of parents want distance learning only.”

In the “blended learning” model that TMS is working on, students starting on Sept. 8 through Dec. 18 will have the option to choose to go to school in-person one day a week with 25 percent of students present in the classroom (that’s option A) or stay fully online in remote learning.

Then, starting in the spring semester, option B will see 50 percent of students in the classroom twice a week.

Still, these models can be tweaked at any time as things are constantly changing, Torrez said. Approval of the proposed schedules will be handed down by the school board on July 22, Torrez said.

Questa Independent School District will begin classes in a fully remote setting up until Sept. 8 as well. Then, parents and students will be able to choose between learning online only or heading back to school part of the week, interim superintendent Carla Archuleta said.

For students at Río Costilla and Alta Vista elementary schools, both of which belong to Questa ISD, prekindergarten students through the third grade can expect to go to classes in-person on Mondays and Wednesdays, while fourth through fifth grade students will attend on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Those same rules apply for Questa Middle School/High School.

The reasoning for it?

“This rotational schedule will allow for appropriate social distancing,” Archuleta said.

The intent is to make sure that going back to school is safe for students, staff and everyone involved, he said.

“Rather then weighing on the concern as a whole, the school officials continue to ask us to prepare and plan for disinfecting sites, plan for staff masks, follow the distancing guidelines for students and staff if in fact school opens up,” Archuleta said in a statement to the Taos News.

However, Archuleta – who was in favor of the New Mexico Activities Association not permitting contact sports this fall – said that heading back to the classroom will be safe since guidelines will be followed.

“The measures of the social distancing are in place, adult supervision is there at all times, masks are a required and small group will be on-site versus the regular classroom size that would typically be on-site,” Archuleta said.

She added that in the survey sent out to parents in the Questa school district, parents “are overwhelmingly concerned about sending their students back to school, even in a hybrid, part-time model.”

She added: “Eighty percent of families who responded said that they preferred a home-based, virtual model for instruction for the beginning of the school year, until the COVID-19 situation has improved.”

Hamilton, who will be entering her second school year at Peñasco ISD as superintendent, said that “science and data” and the help of other superintendents led to the decision to begin in-person classes on Sept. 8 instead of the state’s allowed August start date.

She said the decision was made by a task force made up of Picuris Pueblo Governor Craig Quanchello, as well as other tribal members, maintenance and food service workers and parents in the school district.

“The COVID-19 trend line in New Mexico is on the rise,” Hamilton said in an email to the Taos News. “The leadership of other superintendents also helped with this decision – superintendent Lillian Torrez of TMS, for example.”

Getting online

All three school districts in Taos County sent out surveys to parents, asking questions such as if students have internet access at home for remote learning.

For students in the Questa Independent School District who don’t already have access to a computer and internet, funds from the CARES Act will be used to fulfill those needs, Archuleta said.

Torrez said that TMS students had already received internet and devices through “community partnerships, Kit Carson community access points and district-provided portable wireless devices,” and that the district will continue to provide those to students who need it.

Hamilton, on the other hand, said that mobile hot spots will be provided to families without internet. Previously, she had mentioned that “we will use CARES Act funds in conjunction with support from other sources such as Kit Carson and the Internet Disaster Resource Center to support internet connectivity issues.”

Daunting task

All three superintendents expressed that creating these back-to-school plans was a daunting task – but that it needed to be done.

“There have been Zoom meetings daily for the last three months to prepare for the safety of our students and staff and online learning,” Torrez said.

Still, though, Torrez knows that right now things are constantly changing due to the stranglehold of the novel coronavirus. She added, also, that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the state have the final say on if it is safe for students to head back to the classroom.

“Everything is changing daily and tomorrow we will have something else, so let’s see if school opens as planned and that will dictate sports opening decisions,” Torrez said.