COVID School Year
By Candice Abro
What will school look like this upcoming fall is a question that many parents, teachers, and students across the country are asking. Will schools open up for in-person teaching in the fall? Will students and staff have to wear a mask? How will schools keep students socially distant? What happens if someone in the building gets COVID-19? The list of questions goes on and on, and many of the answers are still unknown.
As many are eager to get their kids back to school, others are making the decision to homeschool. Schools are working on putting plans in place to get students and staff back to school safely. This upcoming school year will not look like any other school year; every school in the state of Michigan will have to follow the requirements set by Governor Whitmer’s Return to School Roadmap.
The roadmap outlines the requirements and recommendations that schools must follow in order to open up. We must be in phase 4 to allow for schools to open up for in-person instruction. If we revert to phase 3, schools will be required to go back to distance learning. For phase 4, every school must meet the following guidelines:
• All school staff will need to wear a mask at all times.
• Students in grades 6th-12th grade will need to wear a face mask at all times, students in grades K-5th will not have to wear a face mask in the classroom but will when they are not in the classroom (hallway, restrooms, bus, etc.).
• Schools need to provide adequate hygiene to support proper hand-washing behaviors.
• Schools have to implement a screening measure for staff and students; it is up to the school to create a plan (taking student temperatures every day or answering screening questions).
• No indoor school assemblies.
• Students who ride the bus will need to wear a mask on the bus. They will need to use hand sanitizer before entering the bus and will need to be socially distanced from one another.
In addition to these guidelines, there are many recommendations such as distancing students’ desks at least 6 feet apart, having students eat in their classrooms, and limiting shared materials between students. Each school in the state of Michigan is required to come up with their own plan using the Return to School Roadmap as a guideline.
As a kindergarten teacher myself, I’ve been working with our school on making the necessary changes for the upcoming school year. Our school, a local parochial school in the Archdiocese of Detroit, has a task force of staff working on a plan for a safe school year. Within our school plan, we have made the required changes and have used many of the recommended suggestions. Some of the things we will be doing as a school that differ from a normal school year include:
• Disinfectant caddies for each classroom which will contain disinfectant, gloves, disposable masks, paper towel, & hand sanitizer.
• Decals throughout the building (social distancing reminders, wash hands/cover mouth reminders, hallway lane dividers, etc.).
• Drinking fountains turned off and only using bottle fillers for water bottles.
• Using acrylic dividers for classrooms.
• Limiting visitors entering the building.
• Social distancing within the classroom.
If students do get a fever they must be fever-free for 72 hours to return to school rather than the 24-hour rule.
Even with all of these changes, my concern as a teacher is my class of 5-year-old students. In my classroom, I will be limiting what supplies students share. Students will have their own supply bins, book bins, caddies, manipulatives and only using toys that can be disinfected which means no soft play.
However, even with all of these changes one of the biggest questions is what will happen if a student or staff member needs to be quarantined. Our school is providing an online platform for students who have to be quarantined, and also to prepare if we do go into distance learning for the school year.
This platform will be used by the school for students use, and it will include videos of lessons, assignments, and activities that align with what students are doing in the classroom. Teachers will also be working in cohorts - each teacher will have a teaching partner to work with (which is typical for most schools pre-COVID).
There are still many unanswered questions and issues we will be working on throughout the school year but one thing that will not change is the school’s biggest concern and effort is to keep students safe.
Candace, a Kindergarten teacher at St. Regis Catholic School, is a contributing writer to the CN.