The Port Washington school district has announced that it will implement a temporary schedule alternating in-person instruction in elementary schools for eight to 16 days, leading to full five-day in-person instruction.
The length of the alternating schedule depends on when desk shields are installed, the district said, and full five-day in-person instruction is to begin no later than Oct. 1.
The new approach came after hundreds of parents objected to the district’s previous plans.
After the district announced Aug. 21 that students at Guggenheim Elementary School, Manorhaven Elementary School, John J. Daly Elementary School, John Philip Sousa Elementary School and South Salem Elementary School would not have the option of a five-day in-person schedule for the coming school year, parents led a demonstration outside the district offices and sent a petition with over 1,000 signatures, claiming that medical evidence supported a return to full-time classes.
District Superintendent Michael Hynes has said that the choice to not include an option for full-time in-person instruction came after the Port Washington Teachers Association expressed concerns regarding the faculty’s return. Efforts to reach the teachers union for comment were unavailing.
Hynes outlined the new plan in an Aug. 28 letter to the community.
“In an effort to find the safest and most instructionally sound elementary school opening decision, I brought together Central Office and building administrators, members and officers of the Port Washington Teachers Association, and representatives of the Board of Education and parent community, for intensive planning meetings earlier this week,” Hynes wrote. “The charge was to come up with a plan that ALL could fully support for our community moving forward. I am pleased to announce that we have created such a plan.”
The plan includes an alternating-day phase-in of between eight and 16 school days, depending on the arrival of desk shields, culminating in all elementary students attending school five days a week in one classroom with their assigned teacher and classmates for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year.
“As a committee, and in the spirit of working together as administrators, teachers, and community members, we believe this plan has multiple benefits for your children in the areas of safety, academic, and social and emotional learning,” Hynes wrote.
As part of the plan, all students will be with one classroom teacher and will stay in one classroom to minimize movement throughout their building. Students will also be wearing masks, seated from three to six feet apart, with polycarbonate desk shields in place. Teachers will receive a polycarbonate instruction shield and a face shield, and all classrooms will be provided with a HEPA filter.
“By moving forward with this elementary plan, our students will be able to have socially distanced mask breaks in unused portions of their building or outside,” Hynes wrote. “We are also installing canopies and creating outdoor spaces for our students and teachers so they can go outside as long as the weather cooperates.”
The start of full-time in-person learning will depend on the arrival and installation of polycarbonate desk shields in each classroom, Hynes wrote.
“Since we want to ensure that the polycarbonate shields are fully installed before we begin full five-day instruction for every child, we have planned a minimum phase-in of eight days, four of which your child will be in school,” Hynes wrote.
Grades kindergarten, two and four will come into school on Sept. 8, 10, 14 and 16; grades one, three and five will come in on Sept. 9, 11, 15 and 17. Should the face shields not be in place by Sept. 18, the phase-in will be extended eight more days, with the former group coming in on Sept. 18, 22, 24 and 29 and the latter group coming in on Sept. 21, 23, 25 and 30.
“We expect all elementary students to be back in their school buildings on a 5-day schedule beginning no later than Thursday, Oct. 1,” Hynes wrote. “We will notify parents as soon as possible as to when the phase-in will end and when five-day instruction will begin within the above parameters.”
Hynes added that the district would host virtual community forums on Thursday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
“I thank you for your patience as we move forward together in keeping our students and staff safe while ensuring our instructional programs are intact and robust,” Hynes wrote.
