A draft reopening plan focused on teaching and learning methods was shared Wednesday with the Manhattan/Ogden School Board.
Superintendent Dr. Marvin Wade says even with the governor’s announcement to delay the start of the school year, the district’s plan is still fine. Guidance was received from the state department of education last week. The guidance stresses learning, but also focus on the operations side. Wade says they feel pretty good, but need to be held accountable and be willing to make changes.
Wade says the state school board approved their draft plan Wednesday morning. A letter will be sent out to staff and parents Friday highlighting the district’s plan to help with their decisions. The district plans to have two instructional delivery options; on site and remote learning.
“That’s the entry point where the parents at registration would pick,” says Wade. “These are district contingencies of depending on the circumstances we could go into a hybrid learning model or all distancing learning.”
Teaching and Learning Executive Director Paula Hough says the remote learning side will not be the same as it was during the spring semester. They have a contingency plan for a block schedule for grades 7 through 12. The intent is to have separate days for when students will be in class or online. One group will attend in person for the first couple of days of the week, while the other group will be attending online. Then the two groups will switch.
Hough says this plan is for if they need to limit the number of students due to recommendations of the health department. This would not be a parental choice, but a choice made by the district. Contingency plan B is for all district distance learning, but is in place as a worst case scenario. Students and teachers would interact through its Canvas platform and video conferencing for classes.
Hough says the governor’s announcement to delay the start of the year gives the district additional preparation time. Staff will be given the training for online learning for students who choose to or in the event they go full distance learning.
Wade says if the district has to switch its delivery methods, the decision process will be similar to enacting snow days. They will have input from multiple sources that will be looking at local trends from the virus, mostly from the Riley County Health Department.
“Even though option one is on site and remote, that doesn’t mean our first step would be on site,” says Wade.
Board Member Jurdene Coleman says when the district adopted its continuous learning program in the spring, it wasn’t by choice. In addition, she emotionally thanked the teachers for everything they have done to prepare for the upcoming school year.
“I hope that families can see that these people care about your kids and this is so hard, everyone is trying the best they can,” says Coleman. “Everyone wants your kids to be healthy, safe, and to learn. Please know, we know this is not the best, but it’s the best that we got today.”
Staff will be going over the governor’s executive order when it is made available on Monday.
