Proposed plan would return SAD 41 students to classrooms

MILO — A “return to school plan” still needs to be approved by the school board, with some details to be worked out and nearly all components subject to change amidst the coronavirus pandemic, but under the current proposal SAD 41 students able to do so would attend in-person classes multiple days per week when school resumes in a month, with various safety measures in place for pupils and staff. The return to school plan was a topic of discussion during an Aug. 3 school board workshop held over Zoom with 90-plus logging in.

“What we are doing tonight is something every school system in the country is doing,” Superintendent Michael Wright said. He mentioned across Maine districts are pondering three options, a full return to school, continuing with 100 percent online learning as was done to close out the 2019-20 academic year or a hybrid model of the two options. 

The Maine Department of Education (MDOE)  has a trio of stoplight colors for school districts, based on COVID-19 outbreaks and other factors, to provide guidance for districts. “Green does not mean all systems go and back to normal, green means we have a low risk at this time,” Wright said as SAD 41 and all other Maine school districts are currently designated green. “Everything is a work in progress and likely will be for some time,” he added.

Presenting a PowerPoint Assistant Superintendent/Curriculum Director Darcie Fournier said, “We will continue to look at this and revise as we need to” with health information changing rapidly. She said a collaborative committee of about 40 members worked on the return to school plan with guidance from the Maine CDC and MDOE.

She said under the green designation — the status will be updated every two weeks — SAD 41 would have in-person classes on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday would be comprised of remote learning for all while the buildings undergo a deep cleaning, which would also be carried out over the weekend.

Should SAD 41 have the status changed to yellow then adjustments would be made to limit how many students are in the same place at the same time and with the number of days attending in-person potentially reduced to two or three from four depending on the grade level and/or students’ education needs, Fournier said. Under red, “instruction would be 100 percent online,” she said.

Fournier said full-time online learning would be available for students and families needing this method of instruction.

The assistant superintendent said a half dozen safety measures will be required. These include symptom screenings conducted at the very start of the day, physical distancing to keep those in the buildings six feet apart, masks or face shields being worn under most circumstances, limiting the number of students on the bus to 24, staggered starts and finishes to the day across the three district school campuses and hand hygiene protocols for all.

“Students need to be six feet apart for any eating situation because they won’t be wearing a mask,” Fournier said. She said meals would be served in the classroom and/or a portion of the student body would eat in the cafeteria.

Mentioning some general information, Fournier said IEP services will continue as outlined, there would be “staggered access to lockers and cubbies at arrival and dismissal time,” physical education classes would take place outside and when this is not an option the lesson would be classroom-based and chorus and band would be modified under safety guidelines. She said officials at the Tri-County Technical Center in Dexter “have agreed to work with us, we are going to be flexible with our scheduling.”

Return to school plan information will be posted at https://sites.google.com/msad41.us/msad41/ “so parents can read it and ask questions to understand before we open,” Fournier said.

School board member Russ Carey asked if the district would be providing masks. 

Fournier said the MDOE is providing PPE for staff who need to get within six feet of students. 

“Right now we are looking at the school district supplying the masks and several different options,” Wright said. He said masks would come with neck gaiters to help students hold on to the items.

When asked if parents could provide masks for their children the superintendent said, “I think we still haven’t come to a conclusion on that.”

Board member Chris Hamlin wondered about how many teachers would be returning and not coming back in-person.

“Many of them are planning to come back but want to know what the plan looks like,” Wright said.

He said some of the faculty will not be able to return to the building due to medical reasons. “We would look to see how we could accommodate them with remote learning,” the superintendent said. “It’s still very much trying to flush out how many people we have and how many students we have.”

“We are hoping to assign teachers to online learning and teachers to in-person learning,” Fournier added. “That planning is coming soon, we will pull a team together to iron out those details for sure.”

The first day of school was scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 1 but with some later scheduled teacher workshop days moved up to provide additional time to plan for the reopening, the first day for students would now be Thursday, Sept. 3 pending school board approval.

“If we have a case in the school building, we would immediately evaluate every situation and we would follow a plan,” Wright said. “Every one of these we will follow up on and take seriously and follow the protocols.”

In response to a question on how many pupils per classroom Fournier said there are not specific numbers. “We are going based on measurements, how many socially distanced rather than just 15.”

“We have a board meeting Wednesday night (6 p.m. on Aug. 5 via Zoom),” Wright said. “We would talk more and see if the board would approve the plan we have now and the new start of school.”