Edison Hatter

(8/1) With Summer 2020 coming to an end, students of all ages, from first-year kindergarten students to senior year college students, and their families are awaiting information regarding the beginning of the 2020-21 school year. Students attending Mount St. Mary’s University are expected to return to campus this fall for classes but will take final exams remotely and online after Thanksgiving break.

Frederick County Public Schools and Mother Seton School have plans that include three different scenarios: an entirely online scenario, a hybrid model, and a ‘green-light, business-as-usual’ scenario. Current expectations are that the fall will begin under the hybrid model for both Frederick County Public Schools and Mother Seton School. North of the border, the Fairfield Area School District has plans for all students to return to the classroom, but older students will experience a hybrid-type model.

The Frederick County Public School system is rapidly creating a ‘Recovery and Reopening Plan’ for the fall. At the July 8 Board of Education meeting, a draft version of the reopening plan was submitted to the board for consideration by Deputy Superintendent Mike Markoe on behalf of four separate work groups that collaborated on the report. The four work groups were a logistics work group, an instructional work group, a special services and student supports work group, and an employee relations and communications work group.

The most significant recommendation of the draft plan is to follow a ‘green-yellow-red light system’, depending on the stage of reopening Maryland is in at any given time during the fall semester. In a green-light scenario, school will be held in-person in a traditional five-days per week setup, with intensified safety and health measures in place. On the other hand, a red-light scenario would be very similar to what students experienced in the spring. Learning would be conducted entirely online under a red-light situation but would incorporate some improvements and suggestions from the online model used in the spring to enhance the overall student learning experience.

However, the most likely scenario to begin the fall will be a yellow-light phase. This will be a hybrid model that will include online and in-person instruction. Students will all be placed into either an ‘A’ or a ‘B’ cohort. The A cohort students will have in-person instruction on Mondays and Tuesdays, and online instruction on Thursdays and Fridays. Students in the B cohort will experience the exact opposite: online learning on Mondays and Tuesdays and in-person instruction on Thursdays and Fridays. All students will have online instruction on Wednesdays while the school buildings are thoroughly cleaned. Additionally, school buildings will undergo a thorough cleaning on Saturday and Sunday.

Frederick County Public School leadership made two major points about the draft reopening plan. First are foremost, Superintendent Theresa Alban made it clear that the draft plan was just that, a draft. According to Alban, the final plan does not need to be finalized until August 14 per Maryland state guidelines. Alban said she hopes that the board will be able to approve a final plan at the August 5 meeting. Second, Alban stressed the importance of being flexible with the reopening plan.

The ‘light stage’ that the county is in will be dictated by Maryland’s reopening guidelines. If Maryland is in stage 1, schools will be in a red-light phase; stage 2 would result in a yellow-light phase and stage 3 would result in a green-light phase. "While we are in stage 2 now and would operate currently under a yellow-light phase," Alban said during the July 8 board meeting, "Governor Hogan could revert the state back to stage 1 if the number of cases in the state goes up. This would result in us having to revert back to stage 1. We must be prepared to move between the three phases quickly during the fall term."

Mother Seton School will follow reopening guidance from the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the ‘Planning Ahead Task Force’ that has been created this summer. Independent of the Archdiocese, Mother Seton School has chosen to relax its uniform policy due to the late decisions and to save parents money. While the official reopening plan will not be finalized until early in August, the major goal of the Archdiocese is to see students return to the classrooms this fall.

Current plans call for faculty and staff to return on August 24 prior to the arrival of students on August 31. However, there will be contingency plans to allow for a shift to remote learning if a second wave of the coronavirus should hit this fall. The task force will take classroom technology, curriculum, pedagogy, and student support, social distancing, facilities, and operations, COVID-19 response, and strategic communications and emerging opportunities into consideration prior to releasing the final version of the reopening plan. Additionally, the task force has and will continue to consider community feedback and suggestions seriously; this has included soliciting feedback via a survey distributed by the Archdiocese.

At the collegiate level, Mount St. Mary’s University is fully prepared to welcome students back to the Emmitsburg campus this fall. However, students will notice a difference to the academic calendar; classes will now begin on August 17, one week earlier than originally scheduled, and students will complete in-person classes prior to leaving campus for the Thanksgiving break. After break, students will complete final exams remotely to mitigate the chance of spreading a second round of coronavirus around campus. There will be no fall break for students this year.

While the majority of classes will be held in-person as normal with good social distancing, some larger classes may require students take turns attending class remotely from their dorm rooms, as necessary. Additionally, meals on campus will be served at staggering times to allow for proper social distancing guidelines to be followed in Patriot Hall. Takeout meal options will be enhanced and encouraged.

As for sports this fall, there has been no official word from Mount St. Mary’s or the Northeast Conference yet, but given the recent cancellations of the Ivy League and Patriot League fall sport seasons, it is likely that the Northeast Conference will as well at some point. While the final details are still being worked out, there will be a COVID-19 testing requirement for faculty and students this fall.

In Pennsylvania, the Fairfield Area School District has a draft plan for returning to schools this fall. The expectation is that all K-6 students will attend school five days per week and will be grouped in cohorts, with teachers rotating classrooms to minimize hallway traffic. Students in grades 7-12 will utilize a hybrid model, with half of students in group ‘A’ learning in-person on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday one week and Tuesday and Thursday the following week.

During the other days, these students will learn online and this two-week cycle will repeat through the school year. Students in group ‘B’ will do the opposite; they will attend school in-person when group A is online and will learn online when group A is in-person. Lunch schedules will be spread out to allow for social distancing during lunchtime. Despite the planned return to in-person learning, all students in K-12 will be given the option of attending all classes online.