CHESTERFIELD — As schools around the state plan for the next academic year — whether it is primarily in-person, remote or somewhere in between — officials at New Hingham Regional Elementary School feel well positioned to welcome students back into the building this fall.
Following state guidelines, school officials are creating plans to accommodate the remote, in-person and hybrid possibilities that may guide learning beginning in the fall. But with low transmission rates of COVID-19 in the Chesterfield-Goshen district — both communities have recorded fewer than five confirmed cases of the virus throughout the pandemic — and with a student population of around 130, Principal Jesse McMillan believes that the school can welcome students back in-person with social distancing regulations in place.
This week, McMillan met with a small group of staff members while social distancing to solidify the different models and address questions that officials and families are asking of schools, such as how students will be transported to school, how they will move through hallways throughout the building, and what in-person learning will even look like.
“We as adults have struggled with this, so we want to be very thoughtful about what this transition is going to look like for the young ones,” McMillan said of the move from traditional learning, “with a completely different idea of what teaching and learning looks like due to the current situation.”
On Monday at 3 p.m., the school will also host a virtual forum for parents to address questions and concerns.
While the school has plans for remote and hybrid possibilities, the low transmission rate of COVID-19 in the Hilltowns in particular “indicates that we can provide one of these options with a safe reopening or return to learning,” McMillan said. Not all school districts will have this option, he noted, particularly if they are in areas of higher COVID-19 prevalence or do not have adequate space to social distance in their buildings.
The state’s plans stipulate that students should ideally remain six feet apart during the school day, though the guidelines allow for three feet of distancing if the recommended separation is not possible. At New Hingham, officials are planning to maintain six feet of distancing between students. While the school has the space, McMillan said, new furniture and rearrangements are needed to allow for adequate distancing. For instance, many classrooms previously had students sit at tables, which will now need to be replaced with desks.
While New Hingham has the advantages of adequate space and a smaller student population, the school faces a challenge when it comes to ensuring that students have reliable internet access, which is not available everywhere in Chesterfield and Goshen. This was a major problem when schools first closed in the spring, McMillan said, when not all families had the internet speed needed to access popular remote teaching platforms such as Google Classroom. The school lent Wi-Fi hotspots, but these devices required cellphone service, which could also be undependable.
Chesterfield town officials hope to launch a municipally owned broadband network by the end of the year, which McMillan said should splve the problem.
McMillan is currently uncertain how many staff members will feel comfortable returning to the building in the fall, he said, and is hesitant to add substitute teachers to the school community during the pandemic.
“While I have all these plans in place, any school faces that chance of having a certain percentage of staff not be able to return,” McMillan said, “and that provides us with another challenge we have to face.”
Ultimately, safety will guide whether students can fully return in person, McMillan said.
“We want to make sure that we promote a safe reopening,” he noted. “I often feel that that word safe is often lost in the message, and that’s something that’s at the forefront of our minds.”