Alexandria City Public Schools officials are working through the scenario planning necessary to reopen school buildings for students this fall — a complicated task that requires figuring out how to deliver new academic material to all students, ensuring academic equity, maintaining safety and physical distancing... and helping parents get back to work.
Tuesday, Gov. Ralph Northam said school buildings will be able to reopen this fall, so long as appropriate health and safety measures are in place, including physical distancing in buses and buildings. Simultaneously, the Virginia Dept. of Education released a 136-page document, "Recovery, Redesign, Restart 2020" for local school systems. The requirements include daily health screenings, significantly increased cleaning and disinfection, protecting vulnerable students and staff, and preparing to close schools again if necessary.
To prepare for this, ACPS officials have convened "thought partners" to host a series of discussions about the challenges and opportunities. There are also five Reopening Cross-functional Planning Work Teams in place, which are developing action plans and reports. Those teams are focusing on five areas: Social and Emotional Academic Learning, Human and Capital Resources, Health and Safety, Financial Management, and School and Community Relations.
On June 26, schools officials will present an "overview of the initial reopening schools framework" to the Alexandria City School Board, with a follow-up presentation in July.
"ACPS is working to put plans in place to reopen schools safely in the fall. If the city and Northern Virginia are fully open at that stage, students and staff will see little difference in the day-to-day operations of the school. However, ACPS needs to put contingency plans in place in case this is not the case and either our buildings remain closed past September or we need to adjust our plans to accommodate the new environment," according to the ACPS.
However, it is likely that Virginia will remain in the third phase of Northam's Forward Virginia reopening plan until a vaccine is developed for COVID-19, which makes it very unlikely that the state will be "fully open" anytime soon.
"Resuming in-person instruction is a high priority, but we must do so in a safe, responsible, and equitable manner that minimizes the risk of exposure to the virus and meets the needs of the Virginia students who have been disproportionately impacted by lost classroom time," Northam said Tuesday afternoon.
It is most likely that Northern Virginia will be in phase three of the Virginia Forward reopening plan. In that phase, according to Virginia Dept. of Education guidance, "All students may receive in-person instruction as can be accommodated with strict social distancing measures in place, which may require alternative schedules that blend in-person and remote learning for students."
In the fall, schools (public and private) will have to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines:
- Daily health screenings of students and staff.
- Providing remote learning exceptions and teleworking for students and staff who are at a higher risk of severe illness.
- The use of cloth face coverings by staff when at least six feet physical distancing cannot be maintained.
- Encouraging the use of face coverings in students, as developmentally appropriate, in settings where physical distancing cannot be maintained.
Northam said schools may have to reconfigure classrooms and common spaces to allow for 6 feet of distance between desks, and to minimize the use of shared common spaces and equipment. This could be quite costly for school systems.
Virginia Education Association President Jim Livingston wrote in an open letter, "The measures outlined by Governor Northam today will require millions of new dollars for Virginia public schools—dollars that many localities will struggle to, or will not be able to, provide. The VEA is calling for increased federal investment in schools, including the passage of the HEROES Act, which would supply hundreds of billions of much-needed dollars for public schools and state budgets. ... VEA is also demanding that the Governor and General Assembly, in finalizing the state budget, put every available dollar toward helping students, and the schools that serve them, thrive in these exceedingly difficult circumstances."
