Scott Swanson
In response to relaxation of COVID restrictions by state schools officials, Supt. Tom Yahraes announced Friday that Sweet Home will be moving to more ambitious in-person scheduling and increased activities at district schools.
The state announced in late March that it was relaxing physical distance requirements for elementary school students from 6 to 3 feet, though high school and middle schools in counties where the rate of new reported coronavirus cases is more than 200 per 100,000 residents must maintain at least 6 feet of physical distance “to the maximum extent possible.”
All schools must maintain 6 feet between staff at all times and 6 feet between staff and students to the maximum extent possible.
The new guidelines also removed the 35-square-feet-per person requirement and other physical distancing changes.
“We’re building schedules, as we speak, to increase instructional times and general schooling times across the board for K-12,” Yahraes said Monday. He said actual schedules are expected to be finalized later this week, as some “operational” challenges are dealt with.
He said there will be no school Friday, April 16, to give teachers the opportunity to make the changes necessary to move into the new schedule.
“We’re trying to build back an as near-normal day as possible for kindergarten through sixth grade,” he said. “We want to greatly increase instructional time for seven through 12.”
Since the new rules essentially double the number of students who can be in a space at the same time, particularly at the elementary school level, district staff are working on revising the current transportation and food service schedules, and beefing up staffing where needed to accommodate those who have opted to continue distance learning, Yahraes said.
Basically, the plan is to start Monday, April 19, with a full day of school, five days a week, for K through 12, and a “slightly abbreviated” day – still five days a week – for older students.
That plan impacts services the district offers as follows:
Transportation and Meals
Whereas the district is currently limited to 20 students per bus, on the average, the new rules will allow 40.
“The first order of business is getting kids to school,” Yahraes said. “This doubles our capacity to deliver students.”
To do that, he said, buses will run two routes each morning and afternoon, delivering elementary students by 8 a.m., then picking up junior high and high school students, who will arrive at school around 9 a.m.
“We do not have enough buses and drivers to do one route and all students (at the same time),” Yahraes said. “We’re working through that. Normally, we have 14 or 15 buses dedicated to all the students. In a normal year, we have 800 to 1,000 students riding buses.
“So we still need to run two routes.”
Nutrition services will be linked with transportation for older students, he said.
Lunch services are being extended, with production lines will be similar to what they are now.
However, in the afternoon, junior high and high school students will leave school with grab-and-go lunches, around 12:45 p.m., which will be the end of their school day.
Younger students will eat lunch in scheduled cohorts, then head out to recess as other students move in.
“We’ll rotate smaller groups of students,” Yahraes said. “We won’t have playgrounds for all 300 students, like at Foster, running around, mixing.”
The strategy behind the schedule, he said, will permit older students to be home when younger siblings leave for school and to be back at home when elementary students arrive.
Staffing
The new rules have prompted the district to seek additional teaching staff, Yahraes said, noting that some 30 percent of district students are staying home for remote schooling.
Junior high and high school teachers will continue preparing Canvas lessons and interacting with those students virtually, but district officials have decided to add teachers to handle younger elementary students who are at home.
“We made the decision a while ago to use Title funds to hire additional staff to handle comprehensive distance learning,” he said. “That way (regular) teachers can focus on the classroom.”
The district was already in the process of lining up teachers when the state’s guidelines changed; positions had been posted pre-spring break to help address any potential class bubbles and online learning, and temporary hiring will take place as needed, he said.
“We were ahead of the game. We had good planning.”
He said he’s “proud” of district staff and families for “working with us” as schedules have been modified and parents have stepped up to assist in their children’s education over the past year.
“Sweet Home has an advantage,” Yahraes said in a letter to parents last week.
“Because we have planned ahead and activated our plans (when restrictions were relaxed earlier this year), we are miles ahead of many districts in our region. We are poised to take one more step to better our services before the year is complete.”