The Evesham Township Board of Education held a Special Meeting last night, August 5, 2020, to discuss and vote on their "Reopening Plan". While the meeting was held as usual at DeMasi, it was not held in the cafeteria, but was held in a classroom, to give an idea of what social distancing looks like in a classroom setting. Video of the meeting is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBsOz4M9FiA.
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| Socially distant Board of Education |
The meeting lasted more than 6.5 hours, with public comment not beginning until 11:30 pm. The questions from the public were difficult to hear. It did not seem that the board had difficulty in understanding the questions in the room, but listening via Youtube, I did not understand many of the questions. It was concerning that as we prepare to send our children back to school for remote learning that there were issues with the technology. I don't know whether this meeting used the same technology that will be used during remote learning, but it was concerning nevertheless.
The return plan is a 67 page document that every employee and parent of a student in the district should read. It was developed by a Restart Committee comprised of teachers, parents, Administration and other school personnel. What I will be writing about here are only my impressions and things that stood out to me, at a high level - your concerns and your viewpoints may be different than mine, and ultimately the safety and education your child is at stake. The issues discussed are too important for my words alone to have any import and there was far too much talked about to hope that I am able to capture everything that is important. I can only discuss the broad plan here, not the all individual little details that will affect your individual child on a daily basis.
Two related points should be made clear from the beginning:
1) Both the Board and Administration stressed multiple times that having students return to the school is not necessarily their first choice. However, the State has REQUIRED all districts to provide a return to school plan. If you are of the opinion that no one should be returning to the schools, you need to let the Governor and your state representatives know your opinions. The local school districts hands are tied - they must provide a plan. According to the NJ Department of Education, "Districts' reopening plans must account for resuming in-person instruction in some capacity".
2) Everything is tentative and subject to change. Just as the guidance from the Governor and the State and County Board of Education frequently changes, so changes the return plan.
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| Slide from presentation |
The plan splits the children into two 'cohorts'. One cohort will attend class in-school on Monday and Tuesday, during regular school hours (no half days), with the other cohort on remote learning. All children will have remote class on Wednesday. The second cohort will attend class in-school on Thursday and Friday, with the first cohort doing remote learning.
- Masks are required in the school, except during lunch and gym
- Classrooms have all been reconfigured to allow for social distancing with minimal sharing of any items.
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| Slide from presentation - emphasis added by me |
- Buses will have restricted capacity - one child per seat (unless siblings). This will limit a bus to 22 students. Students will load back to front - the first children on the bus have to sit in the back seat. Buses will be cleaned between routes. Masks are required on buses.
- Upon arriving at the school, all students and staff will walk past a thermal scanner to take a temperature reading.
- Lunch will be eaten outside (bring your lunch or have it delivered from cafeteria) when possible, and in the classrooms when not possible.
- While children are outside at lunch (or after lunch if they eat indoors), when the classroom is empty, it will be sprayed with 'Eco Neutral Disinfectant Spray and Cleaner.' This takes about 10 minutes to dry.
- ECC will offer 'Remote Learning Childcare'. I understood this to be a place to bring your child during days where they would be remote learning, if they are unable to stay in the house. They will remote learn from ECC.
- A survey is to be sent out this week for parents to confirm choice of Hybrid learning (2 days in school, 3 days remote) or full-time remote.
- "The district's ventilation system has an air exchange rate in our classrooms that is set at every six minutes, meaning that air is replaced 10 times an hour (vented in and out)."
- In the middle schools, where normally the children would change classrooms to go to Math or English, etc, the teachers will be the ones changing room, while the students remain in their classroom.
- The district will try to group all full-time remote students with the same teacher.
- There were several phone calls from teachers (as well as lengthy discussion among board members) recommending that the in-school days be half days, as some of the surrounding districts have implemented, rather than the full days written into the plan.
The plan was approved by a 7-1 vote, with Mr Lanzilotta opposed and Mr Mehigan not in attendance. Mr Lanzilotta had expressed concern earlier in the meeting about having children on camera during the school day and worried that it was a violation of privacy. Ms Macgulick stated that the district had received approval to do this, but Mr Lanzilotta again expressed concern about the cameras when he voted no.
I admit that this summary is very cursory in nature and again implore everyone to read the full plan.
If I have gotten anything wrong here, please let me know by responding in the Facebook post, or emailing me at MarltonNeil@yahoo.com.
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