Schools chief sees closures as boon for online effort
Though Anne Arundel County Superintendent George Arlotto said he was disappointed schools will be closed through the end of the 2019-2020 school year, the state’s decision clears a path for full online learning.
“We have been operating with this notion that we may open, and we have to be prepared for that,” Arlotto said. “We can really focus our efforts on robust e-learning for the remainder of the school year and not be concerned with having to get back into the buildings.”
The school system will keep reaching out to students who have yet to engage with their teachers on Google Classroom as well as sending out paper packets for those who do not have internet connection or devices at home. Now with the state decision, the school system can also work on a recovery plan, Arlotto said.
State officials announced Wednesday that Maryland’s public school students will not return to classrooms for the
rest of the academic year, making it one of the last states in the nation to make the call during the coronavirus pandemic.
Online and distance learning will continue while the State Department of Education readies a comprehensive longterm recovery plan called “Maryland Together: Recovery Plan for Education,” said Karen Salmon, the state superintendent of schools.
“I am convinced this is the appropriate decision in order to continue to protect the health and safety of our students, educators, staff and all members of school communities throughout Maryland,” Salmon said at a news conference Wednesday.
Arlotto has not made an official decision on graduation ceremonies but said virtual graduations allow for already planned dates and times for commencements.
“What we do know is that we can produce a virtual graduation at least to honor our class of 2020 now and in the timeframe we have already built into our calendar — leaving the possibilities open to future events for our seniors,” he said.
The school system may hold alternative celebrations. Arlotto provided examples like delayed ceremonies in the summer or by winter break, when students normally return home from college.
The school system is reviewing different possibilities for students coming back to school in the fall. State superintendent talked of alternate days or bringing smaller groups of students back into school buildings.
The county superintendent is still awaiting further direction from the state for the upcoming school year but offered ideas of what the fall semester could look like such as masks and thermometers for schools and buses.
“I am convinced this is the appropriate decision in order to continue to protect the health and safety of our students, educators, staff and all members of school communities throughout Maryland.”
— Karen Salmon, the state superintendent of schools
“I doubt we’ll be able to fill a building the way we have in the past,” Arlotto said. “So maybe bringing in half the students or a third of the students for a partial day or a full day…are all things that I guess are possibilities,” he said.
County schools are still waiting for state direction on opening schools up to allow teachers and students to retrieve belongings from classrooms and lockers, Arlotto said.
Salmon emphasized that the school recovery plan was not prescriptive and does not make any mandates that school systems must follow. Rather, the plan outlines a set of “options and considerations developed from best practices and available research across the country,” she said.
The school board plan identifies several sample schedules and calendar ideas that dovetail with Gov. Larry Hogan’s recovery plan for the state. Officials said they did not expect the re-opening of schools to be included in the first stage of that plan.
Public school students were last in their classrooms on March 13, as officials have kept kids out of their buildings in an attempt to limit the spread of the coronavirus. An initial two-week closure was extended through mid-May then extended again on Wednesday to cover the rest of the year.
All of Maryland’s neighboring states and Washington, D.C., already canceled inperson instruction for the rest of the year.
Only two other states haven’t canceled classes for the rest of the year. Wyoming
schools are currently closed through May 15, and a few school districts in Montana are starting to reopen for in-person classes this week.
Salmon’s announcement followed “extensive discussions” between the board of education, the Maryland Health Department and public health experts advising Hogan.
The switch to online learning has been a challenge for teachers, students and parents. It has exposed a digital divide, with significant numbers of students lacking laptops or tablets and the internet access necessary to access online schoolwork.
By mid April — about a month into the school closures — tens of thousands of children had not logged into their online learning systems or picked up paper lesson packets, according to a survey of school superintendents.
Closing for the remainder of the year “is the right decision for the safety of students, educators and families. But it is sad because educators really miss their students. We want to have some closure,” said Cheryl Bost, president of the Maryland State Education Association, the union representing the majority of teachers in the state.
Bost said the inequalities that have become evident during the period since physical schools closed down have to be addressed in the future.
“This is going to be a very long period of time for them to lose progress in learning,” she said.
Parents and students have been anxiously awaiting some definitive ruling from the state for weeks, but Bost said she thought overall the state was right to make the decisions in a gradual manner.
“It was its own transition period. It eased us into it even though it created anxiety,” Bost said.