Ouray School District detailed schedule changes, mask requirements and other components of their opening plan at an online forum Tuesday, providing the clearest look yet at how school will be different when it resumes later this month.
The district will start with a “soft opening” for the first week of school. Elementary students will begin Monday, Aug. 31, and middle and high school students will join them Tuesday for in-person classes. All students will have remote learning assignme...
Ouray School District detailed schedule changes, mask requirements and other components of their opening plan at an online forum Tuesday, providing the clearest look yet at how school will be different when it resumes later this month.
The district will start with a “soft opening” for the first week of school. Elementary students will begin Monday, Aug. 31, and middle and high school students will join them Tuesday for in-person classes. All students will have remote learning assignments Wednesday while teachers and staff meet to discuss the first few days and make any necessary changes. All students will return on Thursday and Friday.
Superintendent Tod Lokey asked parents to choose between the in-person and fully online option before the first day of school. Classes will begin in-person but may shift online as needed if there are coronavirus cases or outbreaks, while the online program, provided by the state-supported Colorado Digital Learning Solutions, is exclusively virtual for the entire semester. The program begins classes a week before Our ay will return to school and is accommodating a late start for those students. Students can switch at the end of the semester.
Masks will be required, but students can remove them while they are outside if there is appropriate spacing and while they are exercising, Lokey said. Preschool through fourth grade students will wear masks during transitions and while moving around, but will not need to wear them while seated in the classroom and distanced from others.
Unlike this spring, when the school used what middle school math teacher Christine Coyer called an “ad hoc” approach to virtual learning and Go ogle tools, the online platforms that students and teachers use have been standardized: elementary will all use the SeeSaw system, and middle and high school classes will all use Schoology, with instruction for students and parents on those platforms during the first week. The distance learning committee, one of four that has been meeting this summer, has also developed sample schedules in preparation for “if and when we have to go remote,” Coyer said.
Kristi Webb, a middle school science teacher on the Public Health and Nutrition Committee, highlighted the role that community efforts to stop the spread of the virus will play in being able to keep the school open.
The committee has worked on cafeteria procedures, assessing hygiene options and determining traffic flow within the school, she said. They also created the new master schedule, which has been altered to keep students and teachers in age-level cohorts and prepare for a potential switch to virtual learning, which could last just a few days for cleaning or much longer if cases spike.
Elementary students will interact with only two teachers each day: their main “core” teacher, and one enrichment class, which will change each quarter to avoid teachers meeting with multiple grade levels and crossing cohorts. They’ll have three recess times throughout the day.
Middle school students will see their four core teachers each day, and will rotate through music, library, art and physical education each quarter. They will not have lockers, but will be allowed to carry backpacks.
High school schedules have been cut from eight class periods to five. Some classes will run for only a quarter instead of all semester, meeting in longer, daily sessions, while other yearlong courses will have shorter blocks that Lokey called “skinnies.” If they have to move online, they’ll be managing fewer courses, and they’ll have fewer class changes throughout the day.
Elementary students will eat lunch in their classroom, with a mix of hot and cold lunch options available to buy. Middle school students will eat in the cafeteria, and high school students will continue to have an open campus and can leave for lunch.
The cohort model and efforts to minimize teachers crossing cohorts “helps us not have one incident close the entire school,” Lokey said.
The Ouray School Board will meet Thursday for a work session on the school opening guidance at 6 p.m.; the meeting will be held at the school and is open to the public “so long as attendees wear masks and practice safe social distancing.” It will also be streamed online.
The board will also discuss the results of the district’s survey on reopening, which was open to parents, students, community members and staff.
Thirty-four staff members responded to the survey, which asked them to gauge their comfort “that the effort/plan will support a reasonable and acceptable amount of risk.” Most said they were either “very comfortable” or “comfortable” with the overall plan to resume in-person classes, while about one-quarter said they were “somewhat uncomfortable.” About 8o percent were “fully supportive” of periodic staff COVID testing, while none said they were unwilling.
Among the “key takeaways,” which were discussed in staff committee meetings or raised by multiple staff members, were ” concern with current custodi a! staffing and reliability,” and lack of trust in students’ ability to follow the plan. They also raised concerns about returning from “high-travel breaks” like Thanksgiving, and about interactions outside school that will make efforts to keep students in separate cohorts ineffective.
About half of the staff said they were either somewhat or very uncomfortable with the building sanitation capacity.
The district has also received 20 responses to a community survey on the reopening guid ance, which is still open to take online. This is a separate survey from one conducted earlier this summer asking parents about their interest in in-person or virtual classes.
Most said they were either comfortable or very comfort able with the plan. In online comments, respondents asked about addressing student anx iety, and said watching other schools around the country open and then quickly close is also concerning. They also asked about providing specifics for daily routines, including student drop-off, and noted that wearing masks all day “will be a struggle.”