Fingers crossed as county weighs Aug. 24 school opening
Two groups of students will alternate class days ‘It’s going to be a team e ort, and it’s going to take a village’
Can it still be called the rst day of school when for some students it will be the second day? Welcome to reading, writing and arithmetic in the age of COVID-19.
Rappahannock County Public Schools (RCPS) has announced that the rst day of school for the 2020-21 school year has been tentatively scheduled for Aug. 24. At rst, students will attend in-person classes only two days a week and participate in remote learning on the other three school days.
Half of students will go to school on Mondays and Thursdays and the other half will go on Tuesdays and Fridays. Wednesdays will be a remote learning
day for all students.
RCPS says faculty will monitor the effectiveness of the initial hybrid model to determine when it is safe to move forward to the next stage of reopening.
Going back to school will undoubtedly look very different this fall. All students ages 10 and up will be required to wear face coverings on school buses and at bus stops, class transitions will be staggered to reduce hallway traffic and students will eat in their classrooms.
“On virtual learning days, students will have the opportunity to receive school meals in the same pick-up or delivery options as our Summer Food Service Program,” RCPS says.
Teachers are planning to record all of their lessons and post them online to their Google classrooms so that students can access them for remote learning. RCPS says they are dedicated to providing all families with broadband access if possible and will equip all students with devices as needed.
And as for school athletics, plans are still somewhat up in the air. Virginia has issued guidance discouraging sports where participants and instructors must be within 10 feet of each other.
“Competition that involves close contact with other athletes must be avoided,” the guidance states. In accordance with state recommendations, RCPS says it “will strive to offer these [athletic] opportunities in a safe manner that promotes good health and the well-being of everyone involved.”
Parents are asked to monitor the health of their children and keep their students home if they exhibit symptoms such as fever, chills, shortness of breath, new cough and new loss of taste or smell.
Kicking off Tuesday night’s well-attended School Board meeting, Dr. Grimsley delivered a proposal for next month’s “soft” reopening. “We are building a plane in the air literally together as a community,” Grimsley said. “We need a high level of buy in. It’s going to be a team effort, and it’s going to take a village.”
The comprehensive reopening plan includes the recommendations of the parents and school faculty who worked on nine committees over the summer to research safety protocols and best practices.
“Some of our kiddos have really experienced some significant trauma and some of our students, according to local data, are experiencing anxiety and depression . . . as part of our soft reopening we are going to be spending a lot of time on this first,” Dr. Grimsley said. “Teachers are going to be the superheroes of this . . . and they’re going to need a lot of time.”
Also in the revised plan, students of all ages will be required to wear face coverings while on school buses and in any circumstances where maintaining a 6-foot physical distance is unlikely, as in during classroom transitions. Desks have been outfitted with plexiglass shields so children can remove their masks while sitting in their assigned seats.
Faculty will monitor the effectiveness of the “initial hybrid model” to determine when it is safe to move forward to the next stage of reopening, when students will return to school four days a week.
“When are we fully confident that everyone can comply with the new regulations and the new norms? We don’t know,” Dr. Grimsley said. “I may be updating you next month . . . the more likely scenario is that we’re doing the initial hybrid model for quite some time.”
Chromebooks will be provided to all students in grades 3-12 and iPads will be available to children in kindergarten through second grade. Grimsley stated that students will be able to download lessons on their devices while at school so they can have access to them when they are at home, regardless of whether or not they have reliable broadband.
And in a guide sent out to parents, the plan assures families that “on virtual learning days, students will have the opportunity to receive school meals in the same pick-up or delivery options as our Summer Food Service Program. Our staff will all be smiling underneath their masks and excited to serve our students safe and nutritious meals in school again.”
The subject that stirred the most lively conversation was the request to parents that they do proper health screenings of their children before sending them to school, and that any child exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 must stay home.
Piedmont District Representative Rachel Bynum asked who will be responsible for enforcing the policy, and brought up the possibility that bus drivers are the most at-risk.
“If I have three kids and I’m trying to get them off to school in the morning, I’m not going to be taking each of their temperatures,” said Stonewall-Hawthorne District Representative Larry Grove.
“The desire to come to school for some kids is going to be — they’re just going to say ‘yeah, I feel fine,’” said Hampton District Representative Lucy Maeyer.
“A lot of community spread happens with people who are feeling fine,” said Bynum.
Wakefield District Representative Chris Ubin expressed concern on behalf of his constituents that parents seriously need their children to go back to school.
“There is a lot of stress and fear from parents . . . the sooner we can get back to a four-day week with the deep cleaning, the better. In the real world the kids are playing together anyway. We need to remember at the end of the day that they’re kids, they’re not robots. It’s never going to be 100 percent the way it should be. These are children . . . remote learning really puts a strain on how little Johnny’s going to pick up that math formula,” Ubin said.
Grimsley said families can apply for specialized accommodation for more in-person schooling or more virtual schooling if they feel it is necessary, and emphasized that the reopening plan is subject to change.
As for school athletics, Grimsley says RCPS will know more after the Virginia High School League releases its recommendations on July 15.
“I have to say I just think this is a fantastic plan,” Grove said.
But from public comment, it was clear that students, parents and community educators had mixed emotions about the plan. Headwaters Foundation Chair Gary Aichele shared the experience of running the Summer in the Park kids’ camp and cautioned the Board that leading children is “much, much much harder than any of us thought,” and that they are, “mitigating risk, not eliminating risk.”
Two parents offered opposite perspectives on the initial hybrid model. Lynnie Genho, executive director of the Headwaters Foundation, requested more information about virtual-only learning opportunities, while Shannon Ennis, GIS analyst for Fauquier County, spoke about the challenges of being an essential worker and fearing that unless her children were in school full time, they might fall behind other students whose parents can home-school.
At the Board meeting, meanwhile, Kenny Ward of RRMM Architects presented Dr. Grimsley with a scholarship award that she can give to a student of her choice.
“She is greatly admired by her peers around the state, she is ultra professional and she has a keen focus on student achievement,” Ward said.