GETTING READY TO GO BACK
UCS, Warren Con transitioning for return to in-person learning
Two of Macomb County’s largest school districts are moving closer to a return to partial in-person learning for all students.
For the first time since mid-March, both the Utica Community Schools and the Warren Consolidated Schools are gearing up for a return of all students, K-12, for at least a partial return to in-person learning.
Utica Community Schools, the county’s largest and state’s second largest district with more than 26,000 students, began in-person learning for K-1 and special needs students theweek of Oct. 5 and welcomed back additional students this week.
Warren Consolidated Schools, the county’s third-largest district, began returning to in-person learning for special needs students the week of Sept. 28. Both will use hybrid platforms, meaning students will spend part of their week with in-person instruction and the rest of their week remaining remote.
Starting this week, UCS has returned to in-person learning for selected Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, as well as Stevenson MADE (Manufacturing, Automation and Design Engineering), and the Utica Center for Science and Industry, for grades 9-12.
Next week, starting Monday, Oct. 26, UCS students in the Utica Center for Science and Industry (CSI) will return for grades 10-11, as well as the Utica Center for Mathematics, Science and Technology Secondary co-curricular programs.
Theweek of Nov. 2, UCS students in second through fourth grades, all junior high schools and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) program at Walsh, and Physically or Otherwise Health Impaired (POHI) will also be returning.
And the week of Nov. 9, students in grades 5 and 6, all high school students, students in CORE (Children Organizing Resources Effectively) at Stevenson High School, and Successful Enhancement of Emotional Development (SEED) at Henry Ford II High School will return.
Warren Con, with more than 15,000 students, has announced its scheduling plans for K-12 but has not announced its dates to renew in-person learning. According to the Warren Consolidated website, the district is asking families to review the in-person learning framework and return the “WCS Return to In-Person Learning Survey” to the district by Oct. 23. The survey
asks families if they will participate in in-person learning or stay with the full virtual academy.
The district needs the feedback so it can set a start date and develop a schedule for students and staff. The school system plans to begin offering inperson instruction in November, starting with preK through second grade and then working through the rest of the elementary school grades and all of secondary school.
With the moves, most of the 23 Macomb County school districts will be headed toward in-person instruction by the start of November. Chippewa Valley Schools, the county’s second-largest district, returned to in-person school for K-5 last week and will transition the secondary students the week of Nov. 9. Mount Clemens, Fraser, Roseville, South Lake, Eastpointe, Warren Woods, Anchor Bay and Center Line all transitioned to some sort of inperson learning, either full or hybrid, by either late September or early October.
Warren Con and Van Dyke Public Schools have not announced their return dates, and Fitzgerald Public Schools is scheduled to return to some in-person learning the week of Nov. 9. All other districts in the county started the school year with some level of in-person learning.
Both UCS and Warren Con will be using hybrid platforms and keeping students in cohorts to limit the amount of exposure with other students as well as school staff.
In UCS, elementary school students will be split into A-B blocks and have five, half-day, in-person schedules. And secondary students will be split into cohorts and attend full-day in-person classes two days a week, two days a week remotely, and then all students will attend remotely on the fifth day.
In Warren Con, elementary school aged children will attend two, halfday sessions in-person per week. Secondary school students will attend two, full- day sessions in-person per week, with the fifth day remote for all students. As with UCS, students will be split into groups of cohorts.
The return to some inperson learning is not a surprise and was expected based upon plans for the districts at the end of the school year in September. But the moves come as cases of COVID-19 are spiking in Michigan and the region is moving into the cold and flu season. Just last week, Michigan set new daily records for the number of reported COVID cases, and the seven-day average for COVID cases reached its highest point since April.
UCS interim Superintendent Robert Monroe is certainly aware of the spike in COVID numbers. And while he said there is excitement around returning to in-person learning, the health and safety of both students and staff remains the top priority.
“We’re excited. We want this for our kids and our community as much as anybody,” Monroe said. “But we won’t be compromising health and safety for a return to in-person learning.”
Warren Consolidated Superintendent Robert Livernois said WCS has used the experiences of the return of special education students in September to expand on its plans to bring the rest of the students back, in small groups, to in-person learning. He said there is a large segment of the student population that desperately needs in-person learning with the teaching staff.
“This plan represents the best way to provide many families muchneeded support for their children at home,” Livernois said of the plan to have a partial return to in-person learning. “With the small groups, this is the best balance we could provide. This is providing additional support while keeping them safe in school.”
At the elementary level, perhaps the area most affected by the lack of inperson learning, Livernois said students will be split into two cohorts and have two half days in person and two half days remote, which will allow as many as four days, and sometimes five, in which students can have direct interaction with their teachers. Asynchronous learning, a student- centered approach that emphasizes the importance of peer-to-peer interactions, will also be a large portion of the school week.
At UCS, elementary school students will be split into a.m. and p.m. groups and will have five, half days of in-person learning.
Due to its size, UCS has had the most difficult task of managing the largest groups of students in a return to brick and mortar schooling. Monroe said that in large part led to a deliberate timeline.
“It’s very important to evaluate and make sure that when we brought kids back, we did so in a slow, deliberate way to make sure we could manage the protocols in conjunction with the MI Safe Schools Return to School Roadmap. That’s why we have the deliberate timeline,” Monroe said. “There is certainly some concern about the predictions for COVID. And we will be coordinating with state, county and local health departments to gauge increases and decreases. And we will be using that science to make good, educated decisions.”
Monroe added with every student in the district now equipped with technology needed for remote learning, the district won’t hesitate to take a step back if warranted to protect the safety of students and staff.
“We could experience a spike (in COVID cases) and we’re prepared to step back. We would not hesitate to step back,” Monroe said. “We have ability to go to hybrid and go remote and in-person at any time. We are prepared at any point to pause and step back if necessary to go back to remote environment.”
Both districts will be using Monday/Thursday, Tuesday/ Friday in- person dates for secondary schools, with Wednesday being an all-remote day. Livernois said that type of calendar will allow officials do to effective contact tracing if a student or staff member is diagnosed with the virus. Livernois said the first thing officials will do with a COVID case is do contact tracing for the last 48 hours. With that cohort model, students in general would not have been in contract with each other for the last 48 hours.
Both superintendents are optimistic and planning for a return to full, inperson instruction. It’s impossible to say when that might be, but the best hope is sometime after the holidays in January. Monroe said the assistance of staff and parents has been vital and will continue to be as everyone goes forward.
“The key ingredient is partnership. Our staff has done a fantastic job through all of this,” he said. “Our parents have partnered to do best they can. We’ve partnered with staff. They’ve provided great suggestions and ways to cope. And when we’re ready to transition to full, in-person, they will have more ideas and suggestions for that as well.”
Warren Con and Van Dyke Public Schools have not announced their return dates, and Fitzgerald Public Schools is scheduled to return to some in-person learning the week of Nov. 9. All other districts in the county started the school year with some level of in-person learning.