SCARBOROUGH — On March 18, the Scarborough Board of Education approved two of three recommended scenarios that would allow students to have more in-person learning time as early as April.
This approval allows school administration to continue examining the option for students, most of whom currently attend school in-person two days a week. The options include having students attend school in-person three days a week every other week, as well as allowing students who are struggling for different reasons due to online learning to have more in-person learning time.
The K-12 Leadership Team developed three scenarios for the STRRT Committee to consider, those being option one, where only students in the primary schools return to the buildings for four days a week; option two, having students grades K – 12 return to school three days a week every other week; and option three, allowing students who are struggling the most to return to in-person school for more days, Diane Nadeau, assistant superintendent, said.
The board voted to move forward with options two and three.
The tentative goal to implement a scenario or scenarios would be after April break, Nadeau said.
An example of what returning to school for three days a week every other week might look like for Scarborough students. Courtesy photo
The STRRT committee, which began meeting on March 11 to review the scenarios, offered pros and cons of each option and building principals gave the challenges and situational updates for each of the schools.
Principals, representing each of the grades, offered their preferred scenarios, with the majority saying that the second option could work with some planning.
The primary schools would favor the first option, but the second option would be the easiest to coordinate, Kelly Mullen-Martin, principal of Blue Point School, said.
Option one would also be difficult to work on without enough feedback, Jesseca Steele, principal of Pleasant Hill School, said.
Susan Ketch, Scarborough High School principal, and Kathy Tirrell, Scarborough Middle School principal, said that the third option would benefit students, especially those who need extra help in order to graduate high school.
One of the largest challenges for scenario three is the difficulty of picking which students could return for more in-person time depending on the space available, Nadeau said. An issue of student confidentiality would also be a consideration.
In each scenario, schools would need to maintain CDC guidelines, Superintendent Sanford Prince said. This includes three feet of spacing between masked students in the buildings and six feet of space between students eating meals or without masks.
A motion to table the school board’s vote to the next meeting was rejected 6-3.
Board member Sarah Leighton, who voted to table the decision, said she did not feel that administration was strongly backing any of the scenarios.
“We make decisions based on recommendations, and I did not hear a strong recommendation from anybody,” she said. “I heard scenarios and preferences, but I did not hear recommendations, and that makes me very uncomfortable to potentially vote on something that doesn’t seem to have broad support across the administrators. We heard pretty clearly it doesn’t have support from the teachers, and while I know it’s the preference of the parents to have their kids back in school — it’s everybody’s preference — and I think there are some things we can do.”
Nadeau said that she felt every principal in attendance did provide a recommendation.
No recommendation or decision could be perfect and satisfy every community need, said board member Alicia Giftos, who voted against tabling.
The issue of time preventing progress from being made could impact students having more in-person classroom time this spring as well, said board member Nicholas Gill, who also voted against tabling the decision.
Gill said he preferred scenario two because it seemed like the most consistent option, but the board ultimately approved both scenarios two and three as options for the school administration to continue to examine.
A decrease in statewide COVID-19 cases, the social and emotional health of students and a transition to in-person schooling in the fall are reasons why administration is looking into adding more in-person time this spring, Prince said.
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