Peninsula schools to ‘reopen’ after Labor Day, but most students won’t go there

Students will return to school in the Peninsula School District next Tuesday, but because the coronavirus risk remains high, most of them won’t actually go anywhere.

Except for kindergartners and small groups of special-needs students, most will continue to learn online at home, the school board heard last week.

“We will open school on September 8, but not in a fashion we could have dreamed of a year ago,” Superintendent Art Jarvis told the board. “We will re-open in remote fashion, meaning online learning will continue to be the mainstay.”

Following advice from the Tacoma Pierce-County Health Department, the district will re-open in “Stage 3” of its six-phase plan for dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. That allows for groups of up to five students and two adults in any single classroom.

How those students are chosen — “invited” is the term the district is using — will be up largely to building principals, Jarvis said.

Elementary principals will prioritize Kindergarten, rotating their first-time pupils into the building one day a week, said Delonna Halliday, principal at Discovery Elementary.

“We will be bringing back our Kindergarten first, with five students at a time,” she told the board. She said she anticipates kindergartners will experience two to three hours a week in a classroom. This is important, since it will be the 5-year-olds’ first exposure to school, she said.

At Peninsula High School, principal Joe Potts said, priority will go to special-needs students and those students who “dropped off the radar” in spring and need one-on-one attention to be brought back.

Ramping up by stages

As the pandemic is brought under control, the district plans to progress to “Stage 4.” which will allow larger groups on campus — principals are thinking of lab science, music and other classes hard to teach online — and then to “Stage 5,” which could bring back full grade levels, up to 50 percent of a building’s capacity.

In practice, Jarvis said, that might mean a building principal might bring back grades 1 and 2, or grades 3 and 4, or alternate the two groups within the week. Online learning would still be available for those left out.

“Stage 6,” the goal, will be a return to 100 percent in-person learning — but with the expectation that some parents will continue to opt out, leaving classroom space for social distancing. In this “dual-platform” model, online learning will continue to be available through the end of the school year.

The line between stages is still a little fuzzy, district officials conceded, and will depend on advice from the state and the county health department.

“It is a work in progress,” Jarvis said. “The health department is looking at starting with primary students, and then if infection rates do not go higher, we work our way up the grade levels.”

Jarvis said he would like to see 6th and 9th graders added to that ladder earlier than later, since it’s important that the younger students be introduced to their new schools; but so far he is losing that discussion with the health department.

Initially, the district had hoped to be in Stage 6, fully in-person, by January, Jarvis said, but there is no guarantee of that.

By the numbers

Dan Gregory, an assistant superintendent, said the district will closely watch the county data on new daily infections, waiting for it to drop into the “moderate” category which will trigger Stage 4.

“When the data on the county platform indicates a new state, staff and families will be given two weeks notice before any change occurs,” Gregory said. However, he warned, if infections suddenly spike and the district has to return to an early stage, parents may not receive that much warning.

“What we are trying to avoid is flipping back and forth — now we’re open, now we’re not,” he said.

The reliance on the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, and its director, Dr. Anthony Chen, drew a grumble from board member David Olson about “his highness, Dr. Chen, who continues to lord it over the school district, figuring he knows better than we do how to run our schools.”

He was echoed by several citizen commenters on the Zoom meeting who wanted an immediate return to full-time in-person schooling.

“We demand that choice,” said Eric Johnson. “You have the means to get the job done.”

“I don’t know how you guys sleep at night,” said Theresa King. “We can go to restaurants, we can go to grocery stores, we can go to Wal-Mart. Why can’t our kids go to school? Our teachers are essential workers, just like cops and the people bagging our groceries.”

“It’s time to walk away,” said Lauren Murphy. “Effectively immediately, we will be removing our two children from PSD.”

School board members said they were sympathetic, but can’t overrule the health authorities.

“It is difficult to listen to some of the comments coming in,” said board member Chuck West. More than anyone, we want to open the schools. It is a heavy heart that we are in the position we are in.”

“I’m pained by the amount of anger and lashing out by groups of people,” said board member Lori Glover. “We need your understanding and patience. This is nobody’s first choice. We as a board are doing everything we can for you, and everything we understand to be within our power.”

Other takeaways:

▪ Federal rules governing free and reduced-price meals have changed from the summer, when any pupil could get a free meal. In the fall, students will be required to show their school identification, which will determine whether they are charged for the meals or get them at a reduced price or free, said Karen Anderson, the district financial officer.

The district has set up nine “Grab and Go” meal sites, she said, and parents can drive to any one of them, regardless of where their child goes to school. That means parents with kids in different schools can pick up their lunches in a single location. The sites are listed on the district website.

▪ The district has updated expectations for online learning to allow students to skip Zoom sessions and work “off-line” with their parents. “We understand the difficulty for working parents to have their kids do school from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.,” said John Hellwich, an assistant superintendent. The ‘family flexibility’ option will allow students to do coursework and assignments without attending live sessions.

Further information on school re-opening for parents, including the downloadable Reopening Guidebook, is at www.psd401.net/schoolreopening

This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 12:00 AM.