Moses Lake School District looks at three options for reopening

MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake School district is looking at three different plans as ways of restarting school in the fall.

At a special meeting Wednesday afternoon, school board members discussed offering students and families these options: a program blending online and in-class learning; full-time, face-to-face instruction; or full-time remote learning using the district’s current online curriculum.

“I really believe all of our staff want to be safely back in school,” said Superintendent Josh Meek. “We all want to, quote, get back to normal.”

“Sadly, I hate to say this, I believe this is our new normal,” he added.

In mid-March, Gov. Jay Inslee ordered all schools in the state closed in response to the coronavirus outbreak. In early June, state schools Superintendent Chris Reykdal said schools would open in the fall.

The Moses Lake School District is currently scheduled to start classes on Sept. 2. However, Meek said that following briefings from Grant County Health District earlier this week, it may not be possible to reopen the schools if the COVID-19 cases continue to increase.

In order to accommodate students in classrooms, Meek said the school district needs to ensure proper social distancing, the wearing of face coverings and proper personal hygiene and cleanliness by students and staff as part of any reopening plan.

In addition, students would have to go through some kind of daily screening and be assigned to “cohorts” that do not change — something easy to do with younger kids but very difficult in middle and high schools, where students typically change classes every hour.

The purpose of the cohorts would be to keep students together and limit the possible spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, commonly called the coronavirus.

School Board President Elliott Goodrich said he did not believe that kindergartners and high school seniors should be subject to the same rules, noting that very small children are nowhere near as susceptible to the SARS-CoV-2 virus as high school students are and that it would be impossible to force young children to wear face masks and maintain social distancing.

“Face coverings will not work for kindergartners, but they will work for staff,” he said.

The blended model Meek proposed would combine two days of full-time instruction on campus with two days of full-time remote learning at home. Some cohorts of students would be at school on Monday and Tuesday while others would be in class on Thursday and Friday.

Teachers would create the lessons and monitor their students’ progress, akin to what happened in the spring, with Wednesday given over to planning, office hours with students, and a deep cleaning of classrooms and schools.

Meek said for this to work, teachers would have to go beyond recording a morning video and making announcements.

“We all recognize remote learning as it was done needs some improvements and enhancements,” Meek said.

He also noted the district would have to evaluate which classes work best, noting that many hands-on vocational classes did not fare well under remote learning.

Meek also said the district would need to identify those students who were not well served by remote learning in the spring, particularly those in kindergarten through third grade, disabled children, and English language learners.

“What happens when we have too many kids select one option? Some options may not be open to some students or families,” said board member Bryce McPartland.

Goodrich said the district should not start out saying that some options will be closed to some students.

“We’re going to work from the assumption that we’re going to do everything we can to give people the option they want,” he said.

However, Meek said the narrower the focus, the more likely the school district will be able to fulfill its promises. For example, according to Executive Director of Teaching and Learning Kristi Hofheins, the MLSD Digital program does not have a K-5 curriculum, so it would not be wise to let grade school children sign up for full-time remote learning.

Students choosing the full-time remote program would use the district’s self-paced online curriculum, Meek said.

“These three together provide good options for our community,” Goodrich said.

“For us to pull off a successful start for the students of this community, we need to be all in on the school reopening,” Meek said.

The district is going to conduct a survey of parents this week to see what options they are interested in, and board members are scheduled to vote on the fall opening plan at its regular meeting next Thursday.