BATH — Bath’s elementary schools — Dike-Newell School and Fisher-Mitchell School — may be the next in Regional School Unit 1 to return to full-time in-person learning for the first time since March.
The RSU 1 school board will make the decision on Monday. School Board Chair Stephen August said the board will base its decision on whether the schools can follow COVID-19 safety guidelines from the Maine Department of Education and the Maine Center of Disease Control and Prevention.
August and RSU 1 Superintendent Patrick Manuel said the district has needed to hire additional staff to help break classes into smaller groups and rethink how students move around the school to keep students at a safe physical distance from one another.
“As we’ve said all along, we’re going to make this decision with the health and safety of our faculty and students at the forefront of our minds,” said August. “Getting kids back in school has always been our goal, but we want to do it safely and at the right time.”
According to Manuel, Dike-Newell School and Fisher-Mitchell School are nearly the same size, with 170 and 150 in-person students, respectively. The average class size at both schools is between 12 and 14 students.
Dike-Newell School teaches pre-kindergarten through second grade and Fisher-Mitchell School teaches third through fifth grade. RSU 1 includes Bath, Phippsburg, Arrowsic and Woolwich.
The two schools now adhere to a mixed in-person and online learning plan to mitigate the risk of spreading COVID-19. Students attend school for two days, then conduct remote online learning for the remaining three days.
Sophia Inman, mother of a second-grader at Dike Newell School, said she believes getting students, especially younger students, in school full-time is what’s best for their education and emotional wellbeing.
“Children are learning how to navigate the world through the social interactions they have, and school is a huge part of that,” said Inman. “That’s where they learn cooperation and empathy. This is a critical time in their social development.”
Inman said she fears students across classes and schools are getting unequal levels of education, not because the school hasn’t provided plenty of new learning technology, but because clear guidelines haven’t been given about how to use it effectively.
Inman said she has noticed her daughter’s reading skills have improved because that’s something easily enforceable at home. However, her math and science skills haven’t developed as much because “that’s not something they’re preparing parents to teach.”
August agreed with Inman, adding “There’s widespread recognition that in-person learning is best for the kids and the community.”
“Particularly for our younger kids who need extra supervision, distance learning has put an incredible demand on our families, and that’s not unique to RSU1,” said August. “I don’t think you’ll find anyone out there who will say remote learning is a good substitute for in-person learning.”
This decision will come at a time when COVID-19 cases throughout the state are continuing to rise.
Inman acknowledged the risk of sending students back to school full-time, but said she believes that’s safer for students and families rather than sending students to other child care facilities.
“The whole point of the hybrid plan is to reduce student interaction, but parents have to find other child care options for their kids,” said Inman. “This theory is flawed because we’re exposed to more people through the hybrid plan than we would be exposed to through the in-person plan.”
While children can become infected and transmit COVID-19, Dr. Amina Hanna, a pediatrician at Mid Coast Hospital who has been guiding RSU 1 through the reopening process, advocated for the full in-person learning plan. She said children who test positive for COVID-19 were usually exposed to the disease through a sick adult close to them, not through another child in class or playgroups.
Bath, with a population of 11,031, has seen 41 COVID-19 cases since March, according to the Maine CDC. Sagadahoc County has seen 192 cases, 143 of which have recovered, and no deaths as of Thursday.
State health officials reported Thursday another 404 Mainers tested positive for COVID-19, making it the third day over 400 people have tested positive in a single day since March. The seven-day daily average of new cases stood at 330.1 on Thursday, compared to 185.9 a week ago and 162.6 a month ago.
Statewide, 14,861 Mainers have tested positive for COVID-19 since March. Of those, 10,394 people have recovered but 246 have died.
If approved, Dike-Newell and Fisher-Mitchell will follow the leads of Phippsburg Elementary School and Woolwich Central School, which returned to full-time in-person learning on Oct. 27 and Dec. 7, respectively.
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