The Mississippi Department of Education has outlined the key issues school districts need to address to reopen schools in relation to COVID-19 concerns, and the plans are presented in a three-month timeline of strategies for the start of the 2020-21 school year.
At this point, the Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District is leaning toward implementing a combination of on-campus classes, particularly for younger students, and distance learning.
MDE partnered with nine superintendents from a diverse range of school districts to outline the key issues in a documented titled “Considerations for Reopening Mississippi Schools.” The document is intended to be used
as a starting point along with the consideration of local needs.
The MDE said, “Local school districts are responsible for designing school schedules that best meet the needs of their communities. School calendars, including the first and last day of school and school holidays, are set at the district level.”
Dr. Mary Brown, superintendent for the Greenwood Leflore district, is grateful for the MDE outline and said the district was already preparing for the next school year.
“We were glad to see that our plans were on track with at least two of the three considerations proposed by MDE,” she said.
Brown also encouraged the community to stay informed on what is happening in the school district.
“We will share this information on our district's webpage, Facebook page and through media outlets. In the coming days, we will post an online survey for parents, students, and community stakeholders to provide input regarding this process,” she said.
“At this time, we are meeting with the district’s administrative team to discuss and create a districtwide plan for reopening schools.,” Brown said.
“While we welcome the community’s input in the decisions, which affect all students, we want everyone to know that there are strict guidelines which must be followed in order to safely provide educational opportunities for our students.”
The plan offers three types of school opening schedules: traditional, virtual and hybrid.
Traditional scheduling includes such things as daily screening, transportation adjustments, routine disinfectant and limited student movement and the restriction of gatherings in buildings.
Virtual scheduling comes with the concern of sufficient internet bandwidth, understanding the digital divide among families, implementation of a learning management system and making sure instructors are trained on online instruction.
Brown discussed various training the district is considering for the transition to online learning. These include such courses as Google Classroom Training, Canvas: Learning Management System Training, and Web Conferencing Training and Instruction in a Virtual Environment. The district will also offer web-based professional development for parents.
Hybrid scheduling would be a combination of traditional and virtual. The MDE set up three possible ways to achieve this.
One method is “A/B Days” in which the student population would be “divided in half, with each half reporting to school on alternating days and participating in distance learning during days scheduled at home.” This would leave Fridays open for tutoring and development.
The second method is “Elementary Face-to-Face & Secondary Distance Learning.” With this method, elementary students would be spread out across the school to help lower the student-teacher ratio. These elementary students would attend four full days a week.
Secondary students would complete work through distance learning.
The last hybrid learning method, called “Elementary Face-to-Face & Secondary A/B Days,” would be a combination of the previously stated hybrid procedures “with the goal of reducing the number of students in the schools each day to achieve social distancing guidelines,” the MDE said.
“Due to the CDC’s social distancing guidelines,” Brown said, “the best option for the district appears to be the hybrid schedule, which includes a combination of online and face-to-face instruction for our students.”
The district still plans to hold a full school year.
As stated in Mississippi Code 37-13-63, “all public schools in the state shall be kept in session for at least one hundred eighty (180) days in each scholastic year.”
The Mississippi State Board of Education is set to hold its regularly scheduled meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday.
It can be viewed from a livestream at msachieves.mdek12.org.
• Contact Adam Bakst at 581-7233 or abakst@gwcommonwealth.com. Twitter: @AdamBakst_GWCW
