Anthony Thy, center, attends class in December at Biddeford High School. Like last year, students will be required to wear masks in the classroom again in September. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
Local schools updated their reopening plans to adapt to shifting guidance amidst a late-summer surge of COVID-19.
Biddeford and Saco plan to send all students to school in-person five days a week. They must wear masks indoors, keep distance, pool test and adhere to all CDC guidance for safe school instruction.
The CDC announced on Aug. 5 that in response to the highly transmissible Delta variant, schools should reintroduce universal mask-wearing indoors for all students and staff, regardless of vaccination status. The CDC says the updated guidance is to ensure students can safely return to in-person instruction.
During the Biddeford and Saco school committees’ Aug. 11 meetings, both boards voted in support of the back-to-school plan. Old Orchard Beach School Board is set to vote on its reopening plan on Aug. 19.
Jeremy Ray is Biddeford’s superintendent and Saco’s acting superintendent of schools. During Biddeford’s meeting, he said if the department agrees to comply with the CDC guidance at the beginning of the school year, schools will be able to quickly adapt if recommendations change throughout the year.
“Instead of (asking) ‘What do I want? What does someone else want?’ we have a set of recommendations that we follow,” said Ray. “And, we get to make sure that our number one goal in all of this is to keep kids safe and to get them in school.”
Following the guidelines worked well for the Biddeford schools last year, he said, and continuing to follow CDC recommendations will help keep the community safe.
“We did not have a shutdown as a district last year, but it doesn’t mean it won’t happen again,” said Ray. “We know that the decisions we make today don’t have to stay forever because (we) follow the guidance, follow the recommendations, and (we’ll) adjust based off local conditions.”
After a difficult year of hybrid and online learning, Ray said one of the priorities of the plan is to keep students in the classroom, even if they have to wear face coverings.
“While there’s no part of any of us that wants to be in this situation again, there’s nothing fun about this,” Ray said.
Lisa Vadnais, a member of the Biddeford School Committee, said as a board, the decision of how to safely reopen schools and considerations for mask-wearing is uncharted territory, and she is surprised the discussion is happening for a second time.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d be addressing how we’re going to be opening schools again,” Vadnais said.
As a member of the School Committee, a person who works in a school and a parent of a high school student, Vadnais said the decision to approve mask-wearing again was difficult, but it was her only option.
“I’ve had parents tell me, ‘This is ridiculous, my child can no longer do this.’ Well, neither can mine. Neither can I,” said Vadnais. “We cannot do this anymore, but it’s out of our control. We’re doing the best we can and making decisions based on science. It’s the only way we can do it.”
When the Saco School Committee met, parents and community members addressed the board with their concerns regarding face coverings in schools. Michael Paul urged board members to consider leaving masks as a decision for the child’s parents.
“What’s been going on the past year and a half is terrible,” said Paul. “When it comes to masks in our childrens’ schools, it has to be left up to the parents.”
Although masks are to be worn indoors, the CDC says masks are not necessary outside. With that in mind, Ray announced to the Biddeford committee that the department purchased large tents to hold some classes outdoors in the fall, and he said the tents can also be used to hold various community events.
The newest addition to the reopening plan is pool testing, a voluntary program that students and staff can be a part of. As the name suggests, pool testing tests a group of about 10-25 individuals for COVID-19 weekly and examines their results together. If a pool’s results come back positive, then the individuals within the pool will be tested separately for COVID-19 to determine who is infected.
“As we have shared and seen with pool testing, that is something that someone signs up for, and if 30 percent of your (school) population participates in pool testing, that is another strategy to keep, if you’re negative, out of having to quarantine,” Ray said.
More information on pool testing is available in the full reopening plan on the Biddeford School Department’s website as well as in Saco’s reopening plan.
As the first day of school approaches on Sept. 1, Ray said his ultimate goal is to ensure students and staff can safely return to in-person learning.
“Our commitment, and my recommendation to you, is that we do everything we can to make sure that kids can stay in school as much as possible,” said Ray. “The alternative was not the best for kids, and being in school is where they belong.”
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