I am writing to provide an update on our pandemic response planning.  Over the past month we have been providing updates about every two weeks.

As it has been from the start, our focus has been to keep learning happening in all eight of our schools while maintaining practices that lessen the risk to students and staff posed by COVID-19. To date (April 6), we have had 110 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among students and staff this school year. Following CDC guidance, we have been required to have about 1,000 students and staff quarantined as a result of being close contacts.

Our nurses have followed up on every absence from school since September to determine the reason and also looked into literally thousands of cases because of symptoms, travel or close contact to limit the possibility of an infected individual being in school. Our South Portland Schools case count in March was almost doubled from February (18 vs. 10), including 10 cases in the past seven days at the time of this writing (April 6), which puts us on pace for the same number of cases in April that we saw in January. On April 2, Maine recorded its first 400-plus case day since February with the rolling seven day average up to almost 260, a sharp increase from 194 a week ago.

While we are grateful that COVID has appeared to be “mild” for children compared to other age groups, it has not been inconsequential, and early reports on new variants are that children may have greater risks of contracting it and being sicker. Cases of COVID-19 among children have risen over the past few weeks according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, including an increase in child hospitalizations and child deaths.

These are worrisome trends. As Dr. Nirav Shah, director of Maine’s Center for Disease Control, stated in a Washington Post article on April 2, “You look out the front window and it’s raining, but from the back window, it’s sunny. And your house is literally on the cusp of the storm and you don’t know which way it’s going to go — stormy, or is it going to be sunny? That’s sort of where we are in COVID.”

In regards to vaccination of staff, at the current rate we expect most school staff to have their first shot very soon. As noted previously, it is 28 days between the first and second shot (Moderna) and then two weeks after this for full effectiveness, taking us to mid May until we can reliably say that all staff have had the opportunity to be vaccinated, which our surveys show the overwhelming majority are eager to do.

Through it all, we have kept schools consistently open since September on a regular and predictable schedule and have worked hard to keep learning going on both in person and distance days. This is far from ideal and not at all how teachers, principals and other school staff want to be providing an education to our nearly 3,000 students. As I have noted previously, this is hard for families who are not yet sending their children to in-person learning as they do not yet feel it is safe to do so.

It is hard for families who want their children back full-time as soon as possible. We hear regularly from families on all sides and we are listening and trying to respond as clearly as we can. While there are no easy answers, I am the proudest that I have ever been in my 32 years as a principal or superintendent of the staff, students and parents that comprise our learning community.

Since the United States CDC issued new guidance on March 19, we have studied the revisions carefully with our nurses, principals and administrative staff. The only significant change in the guidance is the move from 6 feet to 3 feet social distancing between children when all other mitigation measures are in place. When unmasked for eating or drinking, the guidance is still 6 feet distance. We have reviewed what this means for operations and what it would take to increase in person learning time.

We have also collaborated with other districts in southern Maine to review their planning and understand their case rates. Given their enrollments and facilities, some districts are planning to increase in-person time for some or all students, particularly K-8. Some districts that are expanding time in-person, such as Portland, are only opening for half-days so as not to need to feed lunch at school. At least five other local districts with case rates similar to South Portland are planning at this time to stay hybrid for the remainder of the school year for two main reasons:

1. Given a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, and without staff fully vaccinated (and students not vaccinated at all), expanding in person places schools at greater risk at best of needing to go remote due to staff absence as a result of need to quarantine and at worst, increasing incidence of COVID among our students and staff.
2. A move to bring all students back currently in hybrid would cause significant disruption and would result in the reassignment of students to different classrooms, teachers, and in some cases schools, to keep classrooms at capacity with current guidance.

We share the view of these districts.  Together with our principals and nurses we have looked at the current case trends, the recent guidance changes and how we best maintain consistent, safe and predictable operations. While we are all totally committed to and confident in a full return to five day per week in person learning for September, the strong consensus of our principals, administrative team and nursing staff is that we remain in hybrid for the remainder of this school year.

What do we gain by expanding in person at this time?

What is the cost of expanding in person learning at this time?

Students in school 4 days/week Increased total time for students in buildings Expanded peer cohorts Sense of movement to post-COVID status and preparation for full return in the fall

Even at 3 foot distance, a significant number of classrooms across our schools cannot fit all students currently attending in the A & B cohort requiring some students to change teachers in order to stay below room capacities Some grade levels could not be accommodated and some buildings would need to have students attend on a split day schedule with half in the morning and half in the afternoon Significant amount of instructional time would need to be redirected to ensuring health and safety protocols in full classrooms and lunch time cycles that provide for the 6 foot distance requirement Length of day would likely need to change to accommodate busing Increased likelihood of remote instruction required in the event of staff absences

 

One example: Some of the K-5 classrooms at one of our elementary schools were at capacity prior to COVID.  Specifically, this school has 10 current classrooms that would not accommodate the full class returning using 3 feet distancing.  To bring all students back would require some classes to be relocated to different rooms, require us to reassign some students to different classes and possibly require us to reassign some students to other schools at certain grades to make this work.

This is the same to some extent at all of our elementary schools in particular.  These are options that are being considered for return in the fall when they would not have the immediate negative impact on students that it would have if done quickly with seven weeks remaining in the school year if a return were planned for after the completion of April break.

Planning for September is well underway and we will need input from all in our community to develop the best and safest plan possible.  Next steps include:

• Family and staff surveys going out by April 12 with results reported out to the community by the time of return from April break.
• Using family and staff survey information, current CDC guidance and ongoing analysis of space and projected enrollment to develop an updated pandemic response plan calling for a five day return to in person learning for September.
• Sharing a draft plan with families and staff as we continue to revise through the end of this academic year.
• Bringing a revised pandemic response plan to the school board for the June or at latest July regular school board meeting for approval.

As I wrote in late February and again in March, thanks to very careful planning and ongoing efforts, we have been extremely effective in containing/preventing increased spread of COVID-19 due to school operations. While this is not how any of us wanted to spend this school year, we still think that our hybrid learning plan has provided consistency, predictability and access to quality learning during this once in one hundred years pandemic. We pledge to continue our efforts to provide the best educational programming we can right now and to work with families, staff and community for a return to full time in person learning for September.

Ken Kunin is superintendent of schools for South Portland. He can be reached at kuninke@spsd.org.

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