Some public school students in Alexandria could be returning to a classroom for in-person instruction as soon as Nov. 5, but most students will remain virtual for at least a few more months.
Alexandria City Public Schools officials released the details of a proposal to return some students to the classroom this fall and winter. Schools Superintendent Dr. Gregory Hutchings will present the plan to school board members later this week.
About 400 of the students who are most at-need of special services, including those in city-wide programs for autism and other learning differences, could return to school buildings by the end of November, followed by English Learners.
Most students in the school district would remain virtual through most of the winter, a decision dictated by CDC recommendations to keep students 6 feet apart in classrooms and on transportation, HVAC systems in schools and other considerations.
All students have been out of the classroom and learning virtually since the middle of March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The slide below from ACPS outlines these details (note that the quarters refer to school year quarters, not calendar year quarters):
The students who are most in need of in-person instruction (students with disabilities) would start attending in-person classes at Jefferson Houston school in November, being phased in through the second quarter of the school year.
Students who are the “most vulnerable English Learner students” would be phased in starting in January.
Also in January, teachers and staff would start designing “Teaching and Learning Centers” for students in grades K through 5, centralizing students at specific locations (likely middle schools) on the east side and West End of Alexandria. Middle schools have capacity and space to handle more students than individual elementary schools.
Shortly thereafter, the school system would “endorse development of a plan to create a Virtual School Learning Option” for students in all grades whose families choose to keep them out of school for health reasons “for the foreseeable future.”
ACPS
See the full presentation to the school board here.
Survey Results Show High Satisfaction with Virtual Learning
Overall, parents, students and staff are feeling positive about the ACPS Virtual+ online learning. Of course, most families would prefer in-person education in school buildings, but given the pandemic, Virtual+ is working for most.
In a debate that started on the Facebook page Parents and Community of ACPS, most parents accepted the plan citing concerns about health and safety, even though they'd prefer their students be in school.
One parent wrote, however, "This is exactly why I worry about ACPS designing solutions around the most nervous parents and teachers: it has the potential to hold a lot of families and staff hostage to the most risk-averse of us all."
In a survey completed as part of the return-to-school planning process, families of students were more likely to want to return to school buildings than teachers.
According to the survey, 64 percent of families and 56 percent of teachers say they are very or somewhat likely to want to return to the classroom. However, more families chose “very likely” than teachers.
In January, the school system will take a more in-depth survey of teachers and staff regarding a return to school on a larger scale to ensure enough teachers and staff would be available for all the students who want to return.
In a survey of more than 7,400 families (English Learning families were underrepresented), overall 80 percent were satisfied with the available academic support and instructional resources. Those least likely to be satisfied were families who are really in need of childcare and special education families. Families of older students were slightly more satisified than elementary school families.
Importantly, 93 percent of families said they had adequate technology to handle virtual learning — the biggest problem for some families was a stable, high-speed Internet connection.
The amount of screen time, however, was a concern to many families, especially in lower grades.
Full survey results are available here.
