Alexandria City and Fairfax County public school system officials are planning to bring some students back into school buildings for hybrid learning this spring.
Alexandria Schools Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr., announced a plan Thursday night that would bring in students slowly starting in early March. Parents were asked to choose back in December whether they were interested in having their student back in a classroom for “hybrid learning” a few days per week or would rather keep them virtual for the remainder of the school year.
Starting March 1, teachers who are willing and able to return to school buildings will start doing so, followed by young students with special needs and English language learners. By March 16, all students whose parents opted them into hybrid learning can start learning returning to classrooms two days per week.
Students who are in buildings will still have to maintain distance, sit behind plastic barriers and wear masks. Teachers will be teaching both in-person and virtual students simultaneously over Zoom in the hybrid model. Some teachers may continue teaching from home due to health concerns.
The school system is hiring an unknown number of “classroom monitors” through a temp agency to help. The job description says, in part, “The classroom monitor ensures the students (up to eight students) stay engaged in their learning; laptops and classroom instruction will be followed per the instruction of the on-line teacher (using Zoom video-conference technology).
Some students will be able to ride the bus, lunch will be served in classrooms and temperature screening will occur for all those entering the building.
Parents who said their students would remain virtual for the rest of the school year should plan to stick with that decision, as it not clear that the schools can physically accommodate more students than those who already opted into hybrid learning. Reaction from parents varied widely on social media this week from being thankful to being disappointed.
“This appears to be much more of a community sponsored babysitting plan than a reopening of schools,” one parent wrote on the ACPS Facebook page.
Another parent wrote on the OpenACPS Facebook page that opening schools will benefit both parents and students, noting that “child care is a huge issue for a lot of people, also finding a quiet space to work isn't always possible.”
Friday, Gov. Ralph Northam called for schools across the state to open on a similar timeline. "It's time for this to happen. It's critical to prevent greater learning loss and to support our children's health and well being," Northam said Friday.
He also suggested that schools make summer school an option again, as they did last summer, to encourage ongoing learning and to help students catch up.
In Fairfax County, students will start returning a little bit earlier than in Alexandria, with students with the greatest needs returning first, followed by K – 2nd grade students in early March. Similar to Alexandria, social distancing measures, hybrid virtual and in-person learning will be the model.
A statement by the Open FCPS advocacy group shows dissatisfaction with the current reopening plans by some parents. See the full statement below.
