Classrooms may have many different looks
BY JOSH RESNEK
The proforma documents the State Board of Education is requiring of all school districts have been submitted by the Everett Public Schools as ordered during the first week of August.
Education here will be resuming in September, most likely in several different forms.
EPS officials say the final education product is a work in progress.
“Education begins in September in one way or another,” said an EPS official. “There could be a hybrid system with in-classroom instruction and or remote learning on the Internet or all one or all the other. There is no way to know right nowwhat the final plan will be.”
Administrators are now in heavy deliberation with great concerns about what exactly will work at the highest details being discussed daily.
“People are on the hustle getting ready,” said a school official.
Administrators are grappling with what technology is necessary, what kind of educational platform will work, how will teachers respond to the planning?
The six-foot social distancing platform is what will be implemented in the EPS.
Policies restricting and controlling arrival of students and departures are also under consideration.
How students will be fed by cafeteria workers is another complexity.
Will everyone come back to school when the doors finally open, probably in mid-September?
“You have to account for families that will not be sending their kids back to school for a variety of reasons,” said a school official.
The official detailed multiple scenarios that all require the EPS to provide educational platforms to those living in spaces with large extended families scared of spreading the virus or of catching it. In addition, those families with children who have health issues that would be compounded negatively by being exposed to the virus need to be taken care of.
“This is an unprecedented situation. It is daunting,” said the official.
What will it look like on the first day of school?
“None of us have a definitive answer to this at this moment,” said the EPS official.