How other school districts around the state are approaching back-to-school

MANCHESTER, NH — On Aug. 3 Manchester school Superintendent Dr. John Goldhardt addressed concerns and fielded questions via Facebook live as parents joined a virtual town hall in anticipation of the district’s final decision on what getting back to school looks like this fall.

The Manchester Board of School Committee (BOSC) will make a final determination on Aug. 10 on remote or hybrid learning styles. Manchester School District officials held a Facebook Live event on Monday night to answer parental questions about the upcoming school year.

The event is available on-demand on the district’s Facebook page. Another town hall-style meeting is set for Aug. 7 to talk about special education considerations.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE ON MANCHESTERINKLINK.COM

Below is a round-up of excerpts from some recent stories published by members of the Granite State News Collaborative and links to the full stories, for a broader look at how other New Hampshire school districts are approaching the process of getting back to school.

BERLIN

School officials discuss COVID-19 with health care providers

With the opening of school just weeks away, school officials from SAU 3 and 20 held a two-hour discussion with local health-care providers on medical parameters for operating with COVID-19.

Citing the experience of local hospitals, nursing homes and health-care centers in operating during the pandemic, the providers said they hope to decrease some of the anxiety of opening up.

Coos County has had 16 positive cases in total; only one has required hospitalization.

Planning, keeping a close eye on data, following safety guidelines and working as a community were all recommendations shared at the remote roundtable.

SAU 3 Superintendent Julie King said districts face more challenges in reopening schools than they did last March when they were given a week to shut down and go to remote learning. She observed that the issue of reopening schools has become divisive across the country.

King and her team will be presenting the school board with a reopening plan at its meeting this Thursday, Aug. 6, and the board will be asked to approve it that night…

READ THE FULL STORY HERE VIA BERLIN SUN

CONCORD

Concord schools leaning toward blend of in-person and remote learning

The Concord School District has prepared three potential plans for returning to school in the fall, but school officials are leaning toward a hybrid model that will have students attending classes in groups, two times a week.

In a meeting of the Concord School Board’s Instructional Committee Wednesday night, interim superintendent Kathleen Murphy presented three potential models for returning to school: a fully in-person plan, a fully remote plan and a hybrid model that includes elements of both. Murphy said the idea behind having three plans is to give the district flexibility to adapt quickly to the changing circumstances of the pandemic if schools need to close down suddenly or are given the green light to fully open.

Two things the district made clear for all in-person scenarios: masks will be required and a six-foot distance between people will be the goal.

In the hybrid model, students would be divided into A and B groups that alternate days of in-person and remote learning. Group A would attend in-person on Mondays and Thursdays, while Group B would attend on Tuesdays and Fridays. Wednesdays would be remote for everyone and serve as a time for teacher planning meetings and building cleaning. Siblings would be grouped together, and attend on the same days.

The remote-only model would be similar to the one last spring, though Murphy said school days would be more planned out with more live instruction and closer monitoring of student participation and attendance.

“We know loud and clear that we needed more structure, students and families wanted schedules. They wanted to know what time a certain lesson was going to be held,” Murphy said. “They want to be online with their teacher, seeing their teacher, seeing their peers in a classroom type setting…”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE VIA CONCORD MONITOR

DERRY

Pinkerton approves hybrid back to school plan

Pinkerton Academy has approved a plan to safely educate its students once the new school year starts.

Last Friday, Pinkerton’s Headmaster Timothy Powers released a statement to the high school’s community for its plan to put a hybrid plan in place for the campus reopening.

In Powers’ letter, the headmaster states that after months of work by many groups considering all aspects of campus operations, the Board of Trustees approved the hybrid plan.

“While we recognize that no plan is perfect, we are confident that this path will allow us the most flexibility in providing the quality education our community has come to expect,” Powers said.”This is the plan we will employ at this time; recognizing the ever-changing nature of the pandemic, we will adjust our plans throughout the year as conditions dictate.”

Powers said the size of the Pinkerton students body, 3,000-plus students, makes it impossible to guarantee social distancing measures if the school was in a full operational model.

The hybrid model allows Pinkerton to provide in-person instruction for all students at least twice a week, Powers stated.

Other parts of the hybrid plan include a mask requirement for all individuals at all times while inside buildings. Additionally, masks must also be worn outside of buildings whenever six feet of distance cannot be maintained…

READ THE FULL STORY HERE VIA EAGLE TRIBUNE

GILFORD

Gilford superintendent unveils plan for phased-in full-time school, with remote-learning option

Students in the local school system will be able to attend classes full-time starting in early October under a plan being proposed by the district’s superintendent.

Kirk Beitler is proposing a phased-in approach to reopening school, according to an outline of his recommendations that he is scheduled to present to the Gilford School Board on Tuesday. The meeting is set to take place in the Gilford High School auditorium starting at 6 p.m.

According to a recap of the recommendations:

• Parents will have the option of having their children in school five days a week, or continue with remote instruction.
• Those who receive in-class instruction will ease into a full-time classroom schedule during the first four weeks.
• Students engaged in remote learning will receive their instruction from Gilford teachers.
• Parents will be required to screen their children’s health every day before they leave for school.
• Students will be required to wear masks whenever they are in a school building and on buses.
• Students will be required to social-distance by at least 3 feet, and preferably 6 feet.

The public will have an opportunity to comment on the plan at this evening’s meeting, but it is unclear from the agenda whether the board will take any action at that time.

About 1,100 students are enrolled in the kindergarten-through-12th-grade system.

The plan is the product of the recommendations offered by a 31-member task force made up of teachers, school administrators, counselors, and school nurses. Some members are also parents with children in the district.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE VIA LACONIA DAILY SUN

JAFFREY-RINDGE

Jaffrey-Rindge reopening plan calls for in-person classes four days a week

The Jaffrey-Rindge Cooperative School District is moving forward with a reopening plan that calls for students to attend in-person classes four days a week, and requires all students and staff members to wear face coverings when they cannot maintain at least six feet of distance.

The school board on Monday night unanimously approved the district’s reopening framework, which plans for students to come to school every day but Wednesdays, when they would learn remotely while school buildings undergo deep cleanings. However, as Superintendent Reuben Duncan emphasized, the framework is not a final decision, but rather a document the district will use to continue planning for the new academic year.

“This is a framework,” Duncan said at the meeting, which was held via Zoom. “It’s not something that’s set in stone, per se. But it helps us to make decisions going forward.”

Public schools statewide transitioned to remote learning in mid-March due to concern over the COVID-19 pandemic and remained that way through the end of the school year. After Gov. Chris Sununu released the state’s reopening guidance on July 14, which largely left key decisions up to individual school districts, public schools throughout the Monadnock Region have been working toward finalizing their reopening plans.

The Jaffrey-Rindge School Board’s decision Monday came after nearly an hour of public comments and questions on the plan. Several teachers in the district questioned the decision to return to any level of in-person classes while the novel coronavirus is still present in the community, especially given the social-distancing requirements included in the district’s plan.

“How will students’ in-person learning experience be all that different from remote learning if it’s important to maintain social distancing and not be passing papers and materials back and forth?” Susan Rolke, a science teacher at Conant High School, asked.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE VIA KEENE SENTINEL

KEENE

Keene preschool closes temporarily amid COVID-19 concern

A Maple Avenue preschool run by the Keene Family YMCA announced Monday that it has closed temporarily due to concerns about potential COVID-19 exposure.

In a letter to parents that day, the Y’s child-care services director, KAaron Brown, said at least one person connected with the program was being tested for COVID-19, but the results weren’t in yet. Keene’s health department had advised the preschool that the state’s reopening guidance recommends that children who may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus be tested and quarantined.

“We will always err on the side of caution when it comes to your children and our community and therefore we will not reopen our Maple Ave Preschool program until Aug. 17, 2020 at the earliest,” the letter says.

Daniel Smith, CEO of the Keene Y, said two people affiliated with the program notified the Y late Sunday about symptoms they felt might be related to COVID-19. He said the facility currently has two classrooms, each with eight students.

Smith declined to confirm whether the two people with symptoms were staff members or students, but he said one of them has tested positive for strep throat and a doctor has ruled out COVID-19 for that patient. Smith said the Y is still awaiting test results on the other person, which will hopefully come sometime this week.

Smith said there’s a chance the school will reopen before Aug. 17, depending on the test result and approval from the local health department.

He said the Y has already done a deep cleaning of the school, which is housed within First Baptist Church at 105 Maple Ave., and another deep cleaning will be completed prior to opening…

READ THE FULL STORY HERE VIA KEENE SENTINEL

KINGSTON

Sanborn won’t resume in-person school until October

Sanborn Regional School District students will be starting remotely at least until they reevaluate their decision by Oct. 15 according to a vote by the school board.

After a recent presentation of options by Superintendent Thomas Ambrose and two hours of public comment, the board came to its decision. Board members all agreed that they would rather err on the side of caution and reassess their decision by Oct. 15 so that parents could better prepare childcare plans.

The board also approved a start date for students of Sept. 8 to give teachers more time to build a better curriculum.

“Remote learning last spring was done with three days’ notice and on the fly,” Ambrose said. “If we have to do remote learning this year we will be expecting a lot more interaction with students and a lot more rigger.”

The school district’s plan for remote learning will be four days of instruction with Wednesday being a more independent day where teachers can do development work and check-in with students.

The board was given options about what in-person school could look like, including a hybrid model where students went to school two days a week and had an independent study at home three days a week. For any in-person option, the district itself wouldn’t offer a remote option, instead, they would be allowed to enroll in VLACS, an online charter school for New Hampshire students…

READ THE FULL STORY HERE VIA EAGLE TRIBUNE

NASHUA

Flexibility key as schools look to reopen in fall

Nashua School District Superintendent Jahmal Mosley stated in a recent letter to the community that local health officials said returning to in-person schooling is not safe. The school is looking to a combination of remote and in-person learning and a fully remote learning model.

“It is our goal to work toward a hybrid model; however, should science and data dictate otherwise, we will be fully prepared to shift to remote learning,” Mosley said. “Gov. (Chris) Sununu released reopening guidelines. Essentially the guidelines allow school districts to create their own guidelines, tailored to local epidemiology.”

He said they are taking a nimble approach and are continuing to look at the issues through the lens of health and safety for students and staff.

“Our COVID-19 pandemic reentry plan will be deliberate, pragmatic and systematic in order to maintain the safety of all our students and staff,” Mosley said. “With continued understanding and collaboration, we will balance our mission to teach our students with the realities of navigating a pandemic….”

READ THE FULL STORY HERE VIA NASHUA SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.