OC school year begins with teachers taking kids’ temperatures, small classes, lots of computer time – starexponent.com

“We had an incredibly successful first day by any standard. Transportation went well in addition to the face-to-face and virtual instruction. I can’t believe that all of this coordinated, personalized attention worked well, but we have to thank the departments for their countless hours delving into the details,” Snead said by email on Monday evening.

School began Monday morning with students in the “A” group attending pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Those students were due to return Wednesday for another day of in-class instruction. On Tuesday and Thursday, the “B” group has its turn. On the days they’re not in their school buildings, students log on to their school-issued laptops along with classmates who have opted for Virtual OC, which offers online instruction only. (The pre-K children are the exception: they receive assignments on paper.)

Meanwhile, at Orange County High School, students seeking in-person classes have been divided into groups alphabetically based on their last names. Each group will attend one day per week, Monday through Thursday, while doing their school work online on the other days. They, too, have the option of Virtual OC.

The Orange County Public Schools’ “Mitigation Health Plan for COVID-19” specifies that high school students with disabilities and those who are learning English for the first time are allowed to attend school in person two days per week. 

On Fridays, teachers are required to be in the school buildings even though they will not be meeting with students in person. It is hardly a day of leisure, according to OCPS guidelines. Come Friday, teachers are expected to monitor the work of their students online, check in by phone or email with students during office hours, collaborate with department colleagues and participate in professional development.

Snead was buoyant after the long-awaited first day of the 2020-21 school year had come to a close. After months of planning how to educate the county’s children during a pandemic, and dealing with blowback from some who felt the schools were opening too soon, the superintendent had reason to smile—and exhale.

“I walked through every building and visited many classrooms. The students’ spirits and comments were priceless and indicative of their happiness to be in school. I enjoyed the teachers’ interactions and their supportive comments,” he said, adding that he planned to visit all the school buildings on Tuesday, to check in on a new group of students having their own first day.

Teachers taking temperatures

The “Mitigation Health Plan for COVID-19” is posted on the Orange County Public Schools’ website. The 36-page document reveals just how complicated the school year is going to be for all involved.

Teachers are charged with taking their students’ temperatures when the children arrive at school. They will point a “non-contact” thermometer at each child’s forehead. If the temperature is 100.4 degrees or higher, the student should be considered a possible COVID-19 case and dispatched to the nurse’s office.

The health plan, which Director of Special Education Susan Aylor completed with the guidance and input of local and regional health officials, states that teachers should consider keeping ailing students in the classroom if the matter can be handled there.

Among the problems that the health plan says a teacher might deal with in class are: minor toothaches, picked scabs, “minor headache or fatigue with no other symptoms” and “readily controlled nosebleeds where the student can provide self-care.”

Students can remove masks during class

Under the heading “Masks/Face Coverings,” the plan states, “All students will be required to wear a face mask/covering in the building when moving in the hallways, picking up food in the cafeteria and when in class and the six-feet physical distancing cannot be maintained.”

However, students are not required to wear masks in class when they are six feet apart from others.

Going into more detail, the plan notes, “All employees will be provided with a mask. All teachers, bus drivers, instructional assistants and therapists will also be provided with a face shield. Education on proper use of masks and face coverings will be provided to all students and staff. Individuals should be careful not to touch their eyes, nose and mouth when removing their face covering and wash hands immediately after removing. Cloth face masks should be routinely washed in a washing machine.”

Plastic barriers have been erected in the schools’ front offices and other areas where there is frequent contact between staff and others. Hand sanitizer dispensers have been strategically placed throughout the buildings, along with signs advising everyone to follow a strict personal hygiene regimen.

Modified classrooms, small classes

The number of people in close contact has been a major concern throughout the run-up to the new school year.

“Classroom layouts will be modified to insure physical distancing in the classroom,” the health plan states.

And with only small numbers of students in class each day, there is less opportunity for large groups to form. Still, even with an emphasis on physical distancing and an insistence that everyone wear a mask when distancing isn’t possible, a number of families opted out of the blended program in the days leading up to the first week of class.

For instance, OCHS Principal Wendell Green reported last Tuesday that out of a student body of 1,466, there were 931 high school students signed up for blended classes and 535 for Virtual OC.

By this Tuesday morning, 140 students had shifted out of in-person classes to online-only.

Face-to-face classes at the high school will be restricted to 10 or fewer students, and high school teachers going over their schedules last week told the Review that some of their in-person classes had only two or three students each; there were even classes that had only one student expected to show up in person.

High school students will change classes three times a day. The health plan specifies that they must wear masks when walking through the building and obey “directional arrows for traffic flow” and stay six feet away from others.

Students throughout the division will eat lunch in their classrooms rather than mingling with large groups in the school cafeteria. They will go to the cafeteria in an orderly fashion to get their meals and then return to their classrooms to eat.

The health plan further states that school gyms are currently closed, but “if the gyms are used, small groups will be staggered, planned and the space thoroughly cleaned in between uses.”

All of the precautions come with some added expense to the schools. The health plan notes that the division “will ensure adequate supplies to minimize the sharing of high-touch materials to the greatest extent possible, assign supplies to a single student, or limit the use of supplies and equipment by one group of children at a time and clean and disinfect between use.”

Superintendent Snead has indicated during school board meetings that bus transportation has been one of the most vexing issues facing school administrators as they try to accommodate the state’s physical distancing requirements while still making efficient use of school buses.

The health plan lays out in plain language the fruits of weeks of administrative conversation about the buses: The schools “will have one student per seat and students will be staggered throughout the bus. Siblings will be allowed to sit together on the same seat. The seat directly behind the driver will be left empty. Students must wear a mask when riding the school bus. Students will load back to front and will unload front to back. The buses, vans or cars will be cleaned at the end of each route, prior to students reloading.”

There are many more topics and details in the school division’s health plan, available at ocss-va.org, but the takeaway message is simple: Hang on tight, everybody. This year is going to be an unusual ride.