School Planning success examples out there?
Are any of your school districts/counties doing a good job of proposing a school plan in the fall? I'm in Charlotte, NC and they haven't announced yet. They've provided 3 different options at this point. They're asking for input and I'm curious if I can suggest to the Board, other places who are doing this well (or as well as possible).
Thanks in advance.
Answers ( 1 )
Now that we're over the worst of the pandemic -- knock on wood! -- we know what worked in schools and what failed. Back in fall 2020 (gosh, that feels like a lifetime ago) we were not yet at the peak of the second wave, but we were getting close. Back to school was a disaster. Total chaos and terror across the board. Thankfully, the kids going back to school didn't cause too much of a spike in cases, but unfortunately, it was the adults who couldn't handle the whole social distancing thing. Anyway. About the schools.
Here's what worked:
- Masks. Kids were required to wear masks and it helped! Imagine that!
- Virtual learning. Cutting down on the number of kids in a classroom helped improve social distancing and kept high-risk families safer. Some students actually did quite well with the flexibility of at-home learning.
- Frequent communication between families school administrators helped keep families informed about active cases and helped them make an informed choice. In my district, students were given the option of in-person or virtual format every quarter. That helped reduce the pressure to commit to one or the other.
- Outdoor classes and no more singing in music class helped cut down the spread.
Here's what didn't:
- 6 feet of social distancing. Not only were kids practically incapable of keeping their hands off each other, but overcrowded schools made this literally impossible.
- Virtual learning. Yes this is on both lists because a lot of kids and teachers really struggled with transitioning to virtual classes and keeping up with academics. My kid took a virtual gym class and it went just about as well as you would imagine.
- PPE for teachers was shockingly, woefully, embarrassingly nonexistent for many districts. A relative of mine was given one disposable mask and a single travel bottle of hand sanitizer. This was meant to last the entire school year.
- Hybrid classes (in-person some days, virtual others) did not work to reduce the spread. It only put additional stress on families.
In spring 2021, some colleges and universities opted to get rid of spring break to discourage students from going home or on vacation in the spring. This seriously backfired. Not only did students just cut class to go wherever they wanted to go, the ones who didn't suffered burnout and failure rates soared.
In-person worked, virtual worked, and hybrid worked for some. I was glad that most schools had options for families to choose their format and I look forward to all in-person in the fall. After everything we've been through in the last year, I feel more confident that the school is going to be okay. Kids bounce, after all.
Here are the CDC guidelines for the upcoming school year:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/operation-strategy.html