What will school look like in August? The Miami-Dade school district has some ideasWhat will school look like in August? The Miami-Dade school district has some ideas
As the state looks to gradually reopen — South Florida excepted, for now — the Miami-Dade County school district is thinking about what school may look like come August.
At Wednesday’s School Board meeting held via video conference, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho talked about what might have to change in order to return to the schoolhouse — and laid out a plan for struggling students who may have fallen further behind during the coronavirus pandemic.
For the general population, it could be using schools with lower enrollments (and therefore more capacity) for social distancing and temperature checks at the door. For those students who need extra help, it means an earlier start to the school year, longer school days and a jump start on Saturday school.
Recommendations will come before the board in June, though plans could shift due to the unpredictable nature of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
“We want to be prepared for a whole host of possibilities that may unfold through the summer months leading to August 2020,” Carvalho said.
On the table so far: Leveraging existing space in schools to maximize social distancing. That could mean using underutilized schools to relieve schools that are overcrowded, putting fewer students on bus routes and staggering pick-up and drop-off times. Students could go to school in shifts.
CHANGES THROUGHOUT SCHOOL LIFE
Carvalho said his team is also looking at activities in gyms, how children are fed at school and different transition times and models. There could be a single flow of student traffic during class changes and more classes held outdoors.
Students could face mandatory washing of hands based on scheduled cycles, and attendance guidelines will get a second look.
Carvalho said a “certain degree of threat persists” if “we do not stress that the all-important, perfect attendance needs to take a backseat to ensure the safety of children.”
He said the school district is looking at providing personal protective equipment, like masks and gloves, to all students and staff members. There could be daily temperature checks prior to entering buses or buildings, and the school district may crack down on ensuring that all children entering buildings meet vaccination requirements.
The school district may also have to tighten its student registration protocols and the reporting of illnesses by employees, students and their families. He told board members that out of 48,000 employees, 15 individuals notified the district that they tested positive for COVID-19, though they appeared to be asymptomatic.
He said a “handful” of students may have had contact with someone who tested positive, but those students did not have contact with the general student population.
“We are either the luckiest entity in the country or the most well prepared,” Carvalho said.
A CHIEF HEALTH OFFICER
Carvalho also pitched the need for hiring a chief health officer for in-house advising on developing protocol. Carvalho said that job will replace the role of chief strategy officer, a cabinet position that has been vacant since July 2018.
On top of that, he said he’d like to convene a work group inclusive of public health experts to gather input and form recommendations on contingency plans. Board members seemed receptive, asking for representation on those task forces.
Carvalho then turned his attention to students who were struggling before schools went online. Many of them live in poverty, are still learning English or have disabilities. He has warned that lost learning could exacerbate the “summer slide” — the natural learning loss that occurs over the months-long summer break.
“We do not want to see that exponential growth in the number of students not meeting the appropriate requirements knowing what we know now,” he said Wednesday. “We need to intervene at this point.”
His plan provides for more than 46,000 students identified as fragile — including those in the lowest academically performing 25%, English language learners and students with disabilities — to recover and regain learning over the summer. He said it could be the closest the district has come to year-round schooling.
Certain students who are performing below grade level based on data will participate in a summer reading program. Fragile students will be in smaller, virtual classrooms with smaller student-to-teacher ratios beginning June 8.
Students with a high number of absences in the second semester, and those who might have logged on for online learning but didn’t complete much work or perform well will also be selected for online learning over the summer.
The district is hoping those most fragile students can go back to learning in front of a teacher, in person, and start school two weeks earlier on July 27. The school district is also looking to increase the number of schools that have an extended school day. Saturday school may also begin earlier in the school year.
“The idea is by the end of 2020-2021 school year going into the summer of 2021, their performance shall be stabilized,” he said.
Online learning will be available to all children over the summer. Graduating seniors will need to return any devices or hot spots loaned to them so they can be inventoried, refurbished and sanitized before they are redistributed. Identified fragile students will keep their borrowed devices.
Carvalho said the school district is “leaning” toward allowing all returning students to keep their devices over the summer, though an official decision has not been made.