TOPSHAM — Maine School Administrative District 75 officials approved their “crawl, walk, run” phased plan for reopening schools in a virtual meeting Thursday.
School officials pushed the first day of school to Tuesday, Sept. 8, a week later than originally proposed, at the request of the teachers. The one-week delay drew pushback from some parents in the district.
Michelle Keleher of Bowdoin, who has four children enrolled in the district, said delaying the first day of school “is not in the best interest” of students who have been waiting to return to their teachers and classmates since schools abruptly closed in March when coronavirus reached Maine.
“COVID-19 has been prevalent since March, that’s five months now,” said Keleher. “Students need and deserve their education to resume in a timely manner. Student should not be academically punished for the lack of planning by adults. Everyone should’ve been prepared on our start date.”
Nicole Karod, a science teacher at Mount Ararat Middle School, said teachers requested the additional week to prepare lessons, especially when they didn’t have the reopening plan finalized until just over two weeks before the original start date.
“We want to ensure the reopening of schools is as successful and productive as possible,” said Karod. “When students return to school, we want to make sure that we’re prepared and have the training and the time that’s necessary to maintain a safe and healthy educational environment.”
MSAD 75 includes Topsham, Harpswell, Bowdoin and Bowdoinham.
In the final plan, parents have two options: Send their children to school with a phased reentry and hybrid education, or keep their children home for remote-only teaching for the first semester.
Students will be split into two groups, attending school on different days. One group will attend school on Mondays and Tuesdays, the other group on Thursdays and Fridays. Wednesdays are reserved for teachers to grade and plan lessons, but teachers also will be available to students.
MSAD 75 students only attend for half days, two days per week, through the first week. In the afternoons, teachers will regroup and meet to discuss what went well and what might need to change. Following the first week, students will return for full days, but maintain the same alternating schedule. Students in the same family or household will be placed in the same group.
Corrie Calderwood, an English teacher at Mount Ararat High School, said she would rather do all-remote learning until full in-person learning is possible because a hybrid plan doesn’t give students the consistency they need to succeed.
“If our job is to educate as consistently and fairly as possible, full remote learning is the best option,” said Calderwood. “My kid wants to get back to school too, but it’s not going to be fun. It’s going to be like it was before the pandemic. Plus, it’s only a matter of time before us teachers will be pushed into an all-remote model with 24 hours notice just like we were in March.”
Calderwood said she’s also overwhelmed by the sheer number of classes she’ll be teaching under the district’s hybrid model.
“This year, I have 10 separate classes, which I’ll see once per week for 70 minutes each,” she said. “Usually, I have five classes, which I see three times per week for 85 minutes each.”
Calderwood said an in-person plan poses a safety risk to students and teachers.
“As a state, we haven’t gathered together in any way we’re asking parents and teachers to gather,” said Calderwood. “No one I know has been in a room with 20 strangers since March. In the course of a week, I’m interacting with 600 students.”
“If there was a way for me to quit right now, I would, and I love teaching,” Calderwood added
After week four, MSAD 75 Superintendent Shawn Chabot said he hopes schools will be able to return to full, in-person learning all week, but he doesn’t know when the middle and high school students will be able to do that based on the layout of the school and class sizes.
Chabot said the number of COVID-19 cases Maine has by that time, the CDC’s guidelines and Gov. Janet Mills’ regulations will all affect how the district teaches its students by that time.
“We need to be realistic,” said Chabot. “We’re in the middle of a worldwide pandemic that will most likely last for the balance of the school year. There’s probably no silver bullet that’ll come in November but if it does, we’re going to absolutely want to get back to school.”
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