A first grade class at Alberta Smith Elementary School in October. School officials are evaluating plans for a return to in-person learning early next year. COURTESY OF CHESTERFIELD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Chesterfield’s school administration is racing against the calendar to craft a second student reentry plan prior to the School Board’s Jan. 12 meeting, at which it will announce whether the school system intends to resume face-to-face instruction at the start of the second semester or keep most students learning virtually for another nine weeks.
Because of the two-week winter break (Dec. 21 through Jan. 1), Chesterfield County Public Schools has only eight more working days remaining before the pivotal board meeting.
In that time, school officials must evaluate feedback provided by focus groups of teachers, administrators and families, analyze COVID-19 data and finalize an instructional model that will take effect when the second semester begins Feb. 1.
“What we want to do is build something that’s sustainable so even if our [case] numbers rise, our teachers can still feel safe,” said Ryan Harter, the Matoaca District’s representative on the School Board, during a meeting earlier this month with members of Chesterfield’s General Assembly delegation.
“We just did not do that great of a job of assuring the teachers who are in our buildings that they’re 100% safe,” he added. “By us going back to the drawing board and coming up with something we know will work, something that will have more buy-in, something they’ve helped to create, we’re hopeful that will be our answer going forward.”
CCPS Superintendent Merv Daugherty returned most students to 100% virtual learning Nov. 30 after Chesterfield’s number of new COVID-19 cases breached a threshold indicating significant community transmission.
The school system will continue to operate in that manner through at least the end of the first semester Jan. 29.
“We feel like with the start of the third marking period, we’ll be ready for a successful second semester with students in the buildings,” Daugherty told state lawmakers at the Dec. 8 meeting.
While Chesterfield’s elementary schools had relatively few issues with implementation of the Project Restart hybrid learning model (two days of face-to-face instruction weekly, three days virtual), middle and high school teachers insist the school system lacks the staffing to accommodate delivering instruction in both formats simultaneously on the secondary level.
The shortfall has been particularly acute as community transmission of COVID-19 surged over the past month, with teachers required to quarantine following potential exposures and a dwindling pool of substitutes unable to keep up with demand.
“We’ve had one teacher in a [high school] auditorium monitoring students being socially distanced. That’s not education. They’d get a better education under those circumstances virtually than by having to corral them because we don’t have a teacher to cover their classes,” School Board Chairwoman Debbie Bailey said.
At a press conference last Thursday, Gov. Ralph Northam noted his administration is considering various options for providing the new COVID-19 vaccine to Virginia’s teachers. “Getting ourselves vaccinated is the only way to end this pandemic,” Northam said. “It will be the light at the end of a very dark tunnel.”
In the meantime, Bailey said, prioritizing teachers’ access to rapid testing “will help keep schools open.”
“I want the [school] nurse to be able to give a rapid test to any teacher who may have symptoms or think they’ve been exposed. If you’re negative, go back to your classroom and teach. If you’re positive, get out of the building,” she added. “It’s the one way we can stay open.”
Harter and Bailey recently held two separate “listening sessions” with CCPS teachers and administrators and encouraged them to offer suggestions on how to make the experience better for everyone if students return to the classroom in February.
“We didn’t necessarily do that the first go-round,” Harter said in an interview last week. “I don’t think our teachers felt like they were heard.”
According to Tim Bullis, a spokesman for CCPS, the school system also was expected to solicit input from families during focus group meetings this week.
Anyone who wants to comment on Version 2.0 of the reopening plan can send a message to the superintendent and School Board via ccpsinfo@ccpsnet.net.
