TK-8 going back two days a week, 9-12 going back one day a week
At the March 16 meeting of the Windsor Unified School District (WUSD) Board of Trustees, Superintendent Jeremy Decker and Director of Educational Services Lisa Saxon, alongside all of the district’s principals, presented the plans and schedules for reopening in hybrid learning on April 5.
“We are on track to open April 5, K through 12, it’s a big deal,” Decker said. “We just crossed a major hurdle by moving into the red tier, we took a risk, saying we’d open for secondary in April, since that is not allowed into you are in the red tier, so we’re pretty excited about it.”
Decker said that all the district campuses have submitted their COVID Safety Plans (CSPs) to county health, got them back with feedback and have now resubmitted them, putting them on track to post by the end of the month on the district website. The new reopening guidance requires the CSPs be posted five days before the schools can reopen.
“A lot of people have asked, why can’t we just go back to regular school and forget this hybrid thing,” Decker said. “The problem is the six-foot distancing. We can only get so many students in classroom and stay six feet apart.
“We also finally got clarity on how many stable groups we’re allowed to have,” he continued. “For elementary it’s one, but there can be an occasional exception for two. For high school and middle school, it’s three, plus one extracurricular. In other words, we can’t have a student in more than three classes (in person), because they’ll mix with other students in those classes.”
He also addressed questions about transportation. Due to six-foot distancing requirements, (reducing the normal capacity of a bus from around 70 to around 20) and a population of students for which the district is required by law to provide transportation for, there is no part of the fleet currently available to provide transportation to the wider school community.
“With the distancing requirement, we’re having to use the entire fleet to transport just those required to have it,” he said. “Until the guidance changes … there is no mechanism to have transportation for the greater community.”
Saxon’s presentation started with a “walk down memory lane” as she recounted the twists and turns of the last year in education, including how the site plans had come into being. She pointed out that in the summer of 2020 the district had been busily creating hybrid models, which formed the basis of the current plans, but that they’d had to abandon them when they realized that schools would not returning in person in the fall.
“Back in June, this what all that subcommittee work was about,” she said. “We got off to a great start but then had to dump that work and then pivot when we realized we were not bringing kids back. We’ve since realized we must also accommodate students who are not coming back.”
The safety measures being implemented at all school sites includes:
- All students must remain six feet apart at all times while school is in session. Each school population will be divided in half, roughly alphabetically (depending on population and letters of last names) and half will attend at a time, for the purpose of maintaining this distance.
- Staff and students will wear face coverings at all times. There are a few exceptions to this rule for students with disabilities or health issues.
- There will be multiple hand washing and sanitizing stations throughout all sites, and students and staff will be reminded to use them at regular intervals.
- Air purifiers have been installed in every classroom and MERV-13 (the best type of air filer) filters are being installed in all HVAC systems.
- Each site has designated or created an isolation room for staff or students who may fall ill during the school day.
In addition, water fountains will no longer be used at any sites, but they will be installing water refill stations so students can fill up their own bottles for drinking.
Mattie Washburn Elementary
Principal Julie Stearn presented Mattie’s reopening plan for the district’s smallest students. According to Stearn, the school has had a few practice runs for pickup and drop off in preparation for welcoming back students. She told the board that at present 85% of Mattie students have indicated they plan to return in person/hybrid, a significantly higher percentage that the widely reported statewide number of 53%.
“From 8:15 to 8:30 a.m. there will be drop off for in person learning in designated spots and they will walk directly to the classroom, so they’re not mixing,” Stearn said.
Half the school will attend Monday and Thursday, and the other will attend Tuesday and Friday. Wednesday will be a day of asynchronous work f at home for students, and prep periods and meetings for teachers.
Students in person and students at home will have their “morning meeting together from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m., and then from 9:30 to noon, kids in class will have in person instruction and kids at home will do asynchronous work. Students will be dismissed between noon and 12:15 p.m. and then from 1 to 2 p.m. teachers will be available virtually for small group and one on one assistance.
Brooks Elementary
Brooks principal Annette Zucconi has divided her students into “Roomers” (kids who are in person) and “Zoomers” (kids who are at home). She allowed each grade level of teachers to decided what sort of schedule would best suit their students.
According to Zucconi, 75% of students have indicated they wish to return to hybrid, but she also added that she was receiving calls daily from families who had changed their mind and decided to send students after all.
Like Mattie, one half will attend Monday and Thursday and the others will attend Tuesday and Friday, with Wednesday being fully virtual. All Roomers will attend from 8:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on their designated days. Zoomers in third and fifth grade will have synchronous work from 8:45 to 9:45 a.m. and 1:15 to 2 p.m. on their designated days. Fourth grader zoomers will attend from 8:45 to 9:45 a.m. and 10:45 to 11:45 a.m.
All three grades will have access to teacher office hours, with third and fifth from 2 to 2:30 p.m. and fourth grade from 1:30 to 3:05 p.m.
Windsor Middle School
Windsor Middle School Principal Brian Williams allowed that the path to a plan hadn’t been entirely smooth.
“I had to make two separate master schedules to make sure we could flow through classes and stay in stable groups … I put together plan and then immediately united the staff in that they all hated my plan,” he said with a laugh. “So, I developed a 3×3 schedule with Lisa Saxon.”
The middle school plan is different from the younger grades in that they are ensuring that students will get all of their six courses by doing three in April and three in May. Teachers will teach kids at home and kids in person identically via Swivel, an in-classroom camera system that will broadcast the in person lessons to the students not in class.
Like the elementary level, students will attend in person two days a week, in alternating cohorts, with Wednesday left as a full asynchronous day with no students in person. Seventh and eighth graders attending in person will attend from 8:40 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. while sixth graders will attend from 8:50 a.m. to 12:22 p.m.
Cali Calmecac Language Academy
By far the most complicated bit of scheduling wizardry belongs to Cali, which has 10 grades to try to accommodate and a small campus that is impacted on the best of days.
There will be staggered start times to prevent mixing at pick up and drop off, and there will be designated, segregated areas for each group to have their snack and recess. Unfortunately, each group will only have access to the playground for recess one day a week.
However, the teachers will be essentially maintaining the schedule they’ve been using all year, using Swivel to broadcast the lessons to whoever was not in class.
Windsor High School
Assistant Principal Peter Sullivan presented WHS’ plan, as the resignation of principal Lamar Collins was announced earlier in the day.
The schedule is based around cores, alphabetization of last names and A and B days. Students attending in person will be there from 8 a.m. to 12:25 p.m., and students will only attend one day a week, on their core day. They can attend three classes, or possibly four if they do not have another extracurricular activity or sport, and keep within the restrictions on number of stable groups they be a part of.
Though they will not be segregating groups during breaks, Sullivan did say teachers and staff will be out in full force making sure that students are maintaining distancing and not gathering in mobs or groups outside of their stable one during breaks.
One issue plaguing the high school age students is that they many have found themselves responsible for the care and potentially transportation for younger siblings. Given the complicated natures of all the hybrid schedules, Sullivan was quick to tell students that they should “just come to school” even if they are late or off schedule due to having to transport siblings.
“If they arrive late so be it,” he said. “Their obligations are theirs, but they should still attend and go to class as they can. We will welcome them when they can, if they have those duties.”
North Bay Met/Windsor Oaks Academy
According to Principal Forrest Harper, North Bay Met (NBM) is small enough that it can be its own stable group and maintain a very close to normal schedule. As it is, most students are only on campus Mondays, Wednesday and Friday, and at their exterior learning opportunities on Tuesday and Thursday. The schedule will not be changed in hybrid, though academic classes will now be shifted to the afternoons, with advisories in the morning on the days students are on campus.
Windsor Oaks students will be on campus on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when NBM students are off-site, but their days will look similar to their regular days as well,
According to Harper, 88% of NBM students and 67% of WOA students have indicated they will be returning in person. The lower number for WOA is almost directly attributed to students who feel responsible for younger siblings who need care and school guidance while parents work.
“A lot of students are talking about how they are the oldest of the family and have to help younger siblings with Zoom lessons,” he said. “Their parents rely on the WOA student to help their family with lessons and making sure they are staying on, so unfortunately they are choosing to stay home to do that.”
North County Consortium/Special Day Class/Special Ed Preschool
The schedules will be similar to the elementary schools’, or related to the schools where the classes are taking place as part of the Bridges program. One of the biggest challenges for these students is transferring them in and out of the campus or class, and so they have scheduled some practice days before official reopening so parents, students and staff can become familiar with the process.
One difference is that in person classes will be Monday and Tuesday for one cohort and Thursday and Friday for the next, in order to reduce the number of transition required of students.
