Peninsula School District ‘working on details’ of Feb. 25 return of middle-schoolers
The Peninsula School District is continuing to plan for the return of middle-school students to in-person learning next week.
Assistant Superintendent Dan Gregory told The Gateway that some plans are still falling into place with the last details being worked out for classes to resume Thursday, Feb. 25.
“We’ve been working on the details up until the mid-winter break and we continue to refine some points and some of the staffing,” Gregory said. “We will be ready to go when we start our hybrid dual platform on Thursday.”
Gregory said these details are mostly centered around “the complexity of the staffing.”
The district had previously said “it is possible that some students, both in-person and remote, may be reassigned to different teachers.”
“All of the scheduling has been taken care of we’re just finalizing some of the staffing in the remote side to make sure we have enough opportunities for students regarding electives,” Gregory said.
Here is the first-day schedule:
| A Day | B Day | |
| 6th Grade | Thu 2/25 | Fri 2/26 |
| 6-7-8 Grades | Mon 3/1 | Tue 3/2 |
“Our principals have been working on splitting the student groups that are returning to school alphabetically into A and B groups,” Gregory said. “They will be sending out information within the next few days regarding which cohort their students are in.”
One group will come to the school on Monday and Thursday, the other on Tuesday and Friday. Wednesday will remain a remote day for all students. A series of planned virtual parent nights are set to take place next week to provide more scheduling information and answer questions.
Melissa Wisner, executive director for learning and innovation for the district, said she is very excited to have students back in the district’s four middle schools.
“It is something we have been working very had on,” Wisner said. “In terms of curriculum, it is the same curriculum that we’ve been using in the district.”
Wisner said the focus continues to be on the common core of the Washington state learning standards.
“Those are the standards that are most critical and carry the most weight of learning,” Wisner said. “Since we’ve been doing that work for the past couple of years, teachers are really primed to go in and say ‘What is the most important work I need to do now?’”
Wisner said curriculum “won’t change significantly” though other aspects of the learning experience might change.
“As we come back, they’re going to spend at least a few days and then continue on throughout the rest of the year rebuilding the culture and climate of the classroom,” Wisner said. “There may be students who have a different teachers because of scheduling choices, that is with both remote and in-person.”
As for having to possibly play catch-up on subjects, Wisner said there is much to be optimistic about.
“For the most part, the kids are right where they would have been and, in some cases, are further in some courses,” Wisner said. “I certainly credit parents with all of the work they’ve done at home as well as having a strong curriculum and, most importantly, strong educators.”
Gregory said the reopening is being done in consultation with teachers and their union, the Peninsula Education Association.
“We are just honoring the memorandum of understanding that we have with our association and all of the planning we’ve done has been in collaboration with our association.”
The district has been providing in-house testing for the past three weeks with once a week tests for staff and testing for students in the Individualized Education Program. There are also hopes to expand testing programs for athletes, whom the district considers an at-risk group.
The resumption comes against the backdrop of Gov. Jay Inslee’s recent announcement that in-school testing will be expanded across the state, and there may be a potential increase in the vaccine supply.
Gregory said that the district remains committed to resuming in-person learning regardless of whether teachers can be vaccinated.
“We continue to advocate for our educators to be vaccinated as soon as possible.,” Gregory said. However, with the uncertainty of when vaccinations will continue to roll out for all age groups, that will not be a prerequisite for us to return to school.”
Gregory pointed to a Jan. 11 letter to the governor from a collective of superintendents.
“Collectively we respectfully request your assistance in re-prioritizing vaccinations for all educators, to include support staff (Pre-kindergarten—12) who enable in-person education, and for staff in every school district to begin receiving the vaccine before the end of January,” the letter read. “Moving all staff from the current categories (B2-4) into category B1, regardless of their age, will afford a necessary and equal COVID-19 countermeasure opportunity for all employees.”
A spokesperson for the district said there has been no response to the letter.
Reach Chase Hutchinson at chase.hutchinson@thenewstribune.com
This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 5:30 AM.
