BELCHERTOWN — In votes taken during its Friday meeting, the School Committee approved a staggered hybrid school reopening plan for students in pre-kindergarten through Grade 8, with all high school students being taught remotely until at least the beginning of November.
The School Committee voted 4-1 for the hybrid reopening plan younger students, with Josh Wallace casting the lone dissenting vote, according to Heidi Gutekenst, chair of the committee. Approval of remote learning for all high school students at least until the end of the first quarter came on a 5-0 vote.
“It was really difficult — I felt like our committee couldn’t get something that was either 100% hybrid or 100% remote,” Gutekenst said Saturday. “So we worked really hard to get this. It was definitely a challenge, but hopefully we can start the year safely. Our ultimate goal is to get kids back to school.”
The school district has decided to start 10 days later as allowed by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, meaning the first day of school is Sept. 10, according to Gutekenst.
Everyone in the town’s public school system will begin with remote learning for the first two weeks of school, Gutekenst said. After those two weeks, English language learners and high-special needs students will start a hybrid education. After two more weeks, kindergartners and students in grades 1, 4 and 7 will start hybrid learning, she said.
After two more weeks, pre-kindergarten, as well as grades 2, 5 and 8 will begin hybrid learning, according to Gutekenst. Two weeks after that, grades 3 and 6 begin hybrid learning. High school will be completely remote until at least the end of the first quarter, which is Oct. 30.
Gutekenst said that for the students in pre-kindergarten through grade 8, hybrid learning will work on its own staggered structure: Children will either be in-person on Mondays and Tuesdays or Thursdays and Fridays, with remote learning the other three days of the week. This will allow for 6 feet of social distancing among students, Gutekenst said.
“We have this plan, but every single meeting we’re going to evaluate if the plan can continue moving forward, if it needs to stay still or if it needs to go backwards,” Gutekenst said of the two plans voted on during Friday’s meeting.
Gutekenst said the town’s school reopening committee had originally presented the School Committee with three reopening plans after schools were shut down in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic: 100% in-person, 100% remote and a hybrid plan. School Committee members pulled the 100% in-person plan off the table during a meeting a week earlier, she said.
Committee members were conflicted over the two remaining plans, Gutekenst said, adding that she received more than 200 emails from community members who were also mostly split on the plans.
“Feelings ranged everywhere,” she said. “There are some people who, no matter what we do, they’re going to do remote anyway, which is an option.”
On welcoming back students in staggered “cohorts,” Gutekenst said, “I felt like it would be more manageable if we went in these smaller groups” as the School Committee moniors COVID-19 metrics in the area and the state.
The video of the full meeting, which Gutekenst said took five hours, was not available online by Saturday afternoon.
Michael Connors can be reached at mconnors@gazettenet.com.