All grades in-person five days a week April 26
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
SOMERS POINT — The Board of Education approved the administration’s “Bouncing Forward” proposal to increase in-person instruction time, with plans to have all students back to an extended schedule starting April 26.
Superintendent Michelle CarneyRay-Yoder said the plan, adopted Thursday, March 17, was developed using feedback from all stakeholders while taking into account current information on the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I feel very confident about moving forward,” she said. “The staff has been wonderful as far as being very flexible with the changes that have been coming through.”
The district started the year with a hybrid schedule under which students attended in person four hours two days a week and received virtual instruction the other three days. Cohort A was in person Mondays and Tuesdays and Cohort B was in person Thursdays and Fridays, leaving Wednesdays open for cleaning and disinfecting.
The plan calls for a staggered approach to increasing in-person instruction, a plan began Feb. 22 with children in preschool and special education classes returning to school for five half-days.
More in-person instruction was added March 1, with the cohorts alternating in-person Wednesdays. On March 8, kindergartners began attending five half-days. And on March 22, students in first through third grades joined the mix.
The school district’s spring break is scheduled for April 2-11. When students return April 12, those in fourth through eighth grades will begin attending Jordan Road School in person for five half-days. All-virtual students will begin simultaneous instruction.
Finally, on April 26, all hybrid students will begin the extended schedule five days a week.
CarneyRay-Yoder said moving to a five-day schedule before extending the length of the day is easier than extending the day and then adding more days.
“That’s why we are systematically doing it this way. Five days a week first with the schedule that we’ve had — the students back in together, the two cohorts combined — then extending the day,” CarneyRay-Yoder said.
The superintendent, who received a three-year contract extension during the meeting, said the district created a Pandemic Response Team that solicited input from parents and others to help develop the plan.
“I think we’re moving in a great direction,” she said. “We’ve all been working very well together as far as getting back to a good place for our students, which is our main priority.”
Dealing with the pandemic response in Somers Point, which has three school buildings with different grades in each, has been quite the juggling act for the administration.
“It’s been the most difficult work thing that I think I’ve ever dealt with,” CarneyRay-Yoder said, adding that it’s impossible to make everyone happy. “The ultimate goal is to do what is best for the majority of our students.”
Under the extended schedule beginning April 26, students will receive about six more hours a week of instruction.
At New York Avenue School, which houses students in preschool and kindergarten, the day will begin at 8:10 a.m. but instead of ending at 12:45 p.m. dismissal will be at 1:45 p.m.
Changes include plans for lunch, rest time and recess.
CarneyRay-Yoder said lunch is the hardest part to deal with because using the cafeteria would take too much time away from instruction. The plan is to have students eat at their desk, each of which has been outfitted with a sneeze guard to help reduce the risk of infection. Teachers, who during a normal year would eat lunch at the same time as students, will take their break in the last 30 minutes of the day so they can monitor students while they eat.
The schedule at Dawes Avenue School, which educates those in preschool, kindergarten, first, second and third grades, will be 8:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
At Jordan Road School, students in grades 4 to 8 will attend from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
CarneyRay-Yoder said the return plan is very regimented by design.
“We’re trying to be a little bit more methodical. We have been reacting to everything since the start of this — and there is no playbook for what we are dealing with — so we have requested for everybody to just slow down and set timelines up and we’re following those timelines,” she said, noting that she does not want to release information only to have to retract it as conditions change.
The transition time between returning to five days and extending the days also allows the district to react to any circumstances that arise with the five-day schedule before further increasing in-person time.
CarneyRay-Yoder said the extended schedule would add about one hour and 15 minutes to each of five days, increasing face-to-face time by more than six hours a week.
“We are trying to get back to a more traditional schedule than we’ve had during this COVID period,” CarneyRay-Yoder said.
Fitting everyone in
Each of the district’s three schools can fit only so many students with the current 6 feet of distance requirements, which technically could prevent all students from attending in person. This is the case more so at Jordan Road School than at the others.
CarneyRay-Yoder said most of the students in preschool through third grade have transitioned to a hybrid schedule. She estimated about 30 continue on the all-virtual schedule, but that was March 19, the last day for parents to notify the district whether their children would be returning in person.
She said there were about 118 middle school students on the all-virtual schedule and expected that number to stay pretty stable. She speculated that more of the older students will remain virtual because they can stay home without parental supervision.
The middle school curriculum also complicates matters. Since not all students take all of the same courses, it is difficult to assign teachers to cover multiple different classes while taking into account spacing restrictions.
“The middle school is tough because it is all departmentalized and there are kids that have certain programs like advanced classes and stuff like that that we want to make sure we are still servicing,” CarneyRay-Yoder said.
The plan outlined safety and security considerations, stating multiple measures were used to evaluate the district’s preparedness. The district evaluated regional statistics and current health metrics, state mandates, federal legislation and vaccine numbers.
A Pandemic Response Team was created, including members of the administration, school medical staff, union leadership and the Atlantic County Department of Health.
Students and staff will be subjected to daily screening protocols. Requirements include 6-foot distancing, masks, hand washing and sanitizing. Sneeze shields have been provided for each desk.
Current quarantine, close contact and contact tracing will remain in place.
CarneyRay-Yoder said students will receive targeted intervention and assistance in the classroom.
Wellness Wednesday will include health, physical education, safety, SEL, wellness and nutrition instruction.