FALL RIVER – The city’s public schools will reopen for students on Sept. 16 with a hybrid plan of face-to-face and remote learning, according to the draft plan the School Committee approved Monday night.
The draft plan, which still needs to be approved by the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, also offers a fully remote option for students whose parents opt to take that route.
Teachers will return to their classrooms on Sept. 1 with nine days of teacher planning followed by a remote opening on Wednesday, Sept. 16, and face-to-face learning beginning on Sept. 17.
The second draft reopening plan Fall River Superintendent of Schools Matt Malone presented to the committee, states “the goal is to open as safely as we can, with as many students as possible back in school for face-to-face (F2F) learning, providing all necessary and needed supports, and taking extraordinary (COVID-19 safety) measures in order to minimize risk while furthering student learning.”
The hybrid model breaks down students into four separate cohorts.
Cohort A is a fully face-to-face model for a high needs group of special education students and English language learners that account for about 1,480 students.
Cohort B is the remote only model. Of parents surveyed during the process of the creating the plan, Malone said 37 percent of parents said they would opt for remote only learning, but that was in advance of knowing DESE’s requirements for remote learning. Cautioning that the expectations would be very different from this spring, Malone said accountability and attendance will be more stringent and students will be expected to complete 6 ½ hours a day of learning on a computer.
The rest of students would be divided into Cohorts C and D with a 10-day, alternating two week cycle. Cohort C would be in school for eight of the 10 days while Cohort B would be learning remotely for eight days with two days of check-ins and supports midweek in the 10-day cycle.
Malone said they opted for the week-long stretch as opposed to alternating Mondays and Tuesdays and Thursdays and Fridays because a slight margin of parents said it would be easier for child care. That model also keeps kids out of school for a slightly longer stretch of time, providing an incubation period in case a child became sick with the COVID-19 virus, added Malone.
On Wednesdays, both of the cohorts would be learning remotely as teachers will be using Wednesdays for prep time and training. Wednesdays would also give the school system a mid-week day to sanitize school buildings.
In all of the models, Malone said teachers would be in the school buildings teaching, whether they’re working with remote students or face-to-face.
The reopening plan draws from “prior survey results, pressure tests of buildings, and analysis of transportation costs, and recommendations from the Remote Learning Task Force and the Community Advisory Committee, coupled with health and safety guidance from DESE and the CDC.” Everything in the plan would also be subject to collective bargaining with the unions, added Malone.
Safety measures include using a six-foot distancing model that also mandates that every person in the schools wear a mask. Dividers will be in place for students who cannot wear a mask for medical reasons. In addition to sanitizing schools on Wednesdays, there will also be a second day of sanitizing weekly on Fridays or Saturdays.
Instead of 71 students on a school bus, there would be 24 students; one per seat alternating sides to keep a separation between students.
Malone said the plan gives the school system the ability to reopen schools for kids to learn while also offering flexibility to pivot to remote learning if there’s a spike in COVID-19 numbers. “We’re not busting through the doors and saying hello we’re ready to go. We’re not doing that. We’re not being bullheaded…. We’re being smart and practical in our planning,” said Malone.
The reopening plan was widely praised by the members of the School Committee as being the best option at this time. “It’s a great starting point for the year and as long as we’re fluid and on our feet I think we will be okay,” said Mayor Paul Coogan.
But the plan doesn’t meet with everyone’s approval. Rebecca Cusick, president of the Fall River Educator’s Association, the union representing teachers, said the FREA’s position is that a return to school should start remotely with a transition to the hybrid model once infection rates improve.
In July, the FREA surveyed its members twice and both times the majority supported a hybrid plan as a phased-in reopening. Last week, though, said Cusick, a third survey showed what she described as a “clear shift in what the members feel is best” with 70 percent voting for a remote start to the school year with 30 percent supporting a hybrid model.
Their main concern, said Cusick, isn’t with the plan itself, but with the COVID-19 infection rates in Massachusetts and Bristol Country trending upward. “Even with safety precautions in place, our members are fearful of contracting the virus or infecting loved ones who may be vulnerable. They worry about the responsibility of protecting their students,” she said, citing stats showing 100,000 children have tested positive for the virus nationally in the last two weeks of July.