EASTHAMPTON — After nearly a year of entirely remote learning for most students in Easthampton Public Schools — and remote learning for all students since November — the School Committee voted this week to begin bringing students back into school buildings starting Feb. 22.
The reentry plan will prioritize students who or are in special populations or preschool through first grade, with this group set to return on a hybrid basis on Feb. 22. On this same date, the district will also launch remote learning centers in all of its schools. These centers will allow students who struggle with remote learning to complete their work virtually with an adult present to help them stay on task, and can service around 50 students across the schools under capacity limits.
The School Committee voted to bring other grades back into the buildings no earlier than March 8, though this date is subject to change based on COVID-19 metrics. In its most recent report, the state classified Easthampton at the “yellow,” or second-highest risk level for COVID-19 transmission, though its case counts and percent positivity rates were on a decline.
The approved plan includes modifications to the district’s original hybrid schedule. Under the old plan, two cohorts of students each spent two days a week learning in person and three days learning remotely on a rotating basis.
The revised model will maintain two cohorts, but students will rotate through in-person and remote learning on a one-week-on, one-week-off schedule.
Allowing longer gaps between the cohort changeovers “is important, we think, to really keep an eye on transmission for the virus,” said Easthampton Superintendent Allison LeClair.
Students will attend on a half-day basis so that they can go home to eat lunch, rather than taking their masks off to eat among their peers. Some educators expressed concerns that students eating together would promote virus transmission, LeLClair said, and the district’s COVID-19 response team agreed that eating lunch at home was also the safer option. Rather than serving lunch at school, students will be given take-home bags containing that day’s lunch and the next day’s breakfast.
The district will make an exception for high-needs students in the remote learning centers, LeClair said, who will be allowed to eat lunch in these centers and stay the full day.
The plan “doesn’t necessarily mean that this will be the be-all, end-all for the year,” LeClair said, “but this is our starting point.”
The school will keep a supply of surgical masks available for educators who wish to double-mask.
When the school committee met Tuesday night, the district anticipated transportation difficulties due to Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) safety guidelines that limited bus capacities. But on Thursday, DESE lifted these restrictions, which will allow the district to operate within its typical transportation guidelines.
Most students in Easthampton Public Schools have not had any in-person learning since schools shut down nearly a year ago in March due to COVID-19. Kindergartners and other high-needs students were allowed to return to in-person learning earlier this school year, with plans to phase the general population in later in the fall. But in November, an uptick in COVID-19 cases locally and around the state led the schools to revert to all-remote learning.
The district put off its return for this long primarily due to concerns that some had expressed regarding air quality and ventilation issues in school buildings.
“That was something we felt needed to be examined carefully,” LeClair said, “and that’s what we did.”
All buildings have now been assessed for air quality, and air purifiers have been placed in area of concern, she said.
Additionally, “I think this group has been conservative,” LeClair said, “and I think you’ve carefully wanted to monitor and review information. And I don’t think we have made any decision lightly.”