The Edgartown School will be phasing more students into in-person learning, starting with grades 5 and 6 on Nov. 10.
According to principal Shelley Einbinder, the middle school reentry plan was recently approved by the health and safety committee, and will continue to phase in students two grades at a time.
Einbinder said the plan will allow for middle school students to return to in-person instruction Tuesday through Friday.
Grades 5 and 6 will start back at school four days per week starting on Nov. 10, and the school day will go from 8:20 am to 2:40 pm.
According to Einbiner, the plan takes into consideration not only the students who are already in the building, but the students who are currently opting for entirely remote classes but might choose to return to in-person learning.
Grades 7 and 8 will return the following week, on Nov. 17, and will retain the same schedule as the younger middle schoolers.
In order to minimize the number of students in any one location, Einbinder said grades 5 and 6 are to be housed on the first floor wing, and will use a separate entrance from the older students.
Grades 7 and 8 are housed in the second floor wing, which will allow them to use a “link” entrance to go directly up a staircase to their homerooms.
Regardless of what grade students are in, Einbinder said this plan will maintain all social distancing and health standards, and there would not be more than 12 to 14 students in each homeroom.
Homerooms will serve as full-time classrooms for students, and teachers will rotate around with carts per an established course schedule.
Einbinder said students will eat lunch at their assigned desks, and take mask breaks periodically.
For those students who continue to learn entirely remotely, Einbinder said they will be livestreamed into ongoing classes in order to be an active part of their classroom, and maintain a report with their peers and teachers.
She said the school has ordered special technology to accommodate remote students, and teachers and administrators are discussing possible training to optimize the experience.
But teacher Maria MacKenty said she is concerned about the urgency to get kids back into school. She said that, with the numbers rising both nationally and locally, “it feels counterintuitive to get our students back in school in such a rushed way.”
She added that bringing such a large amount of students back in a short timespan will put a “huge stress” on the building, and on staff.
“There are alternatives that might make this a more gradual process, MacKenty said. “I feel like it’s rushed and the timing is peculiar given the rising rate of the virus. I am 64 years old, I don’t want to get sick. I don’t think anyone wants to get sick.”
She added that teaching under the current conditions is “one of the most stressful things” she has done over the course of her long tenure as a teacher.
Teacher Nedine Cunningham said she is concerned that the school is moving on to new plans without taking pause and considering the plans that are already in place.
Additionally, she said the education that teachers can provide under such strenuous circumstances is going to be “very different.”
With teachers travelling around to homerooms to accommodate students, Cunningham said they won’t have access to all the necessary educational tools that would normally be available to them if they were stationary.
And teacher Meghan Brown said long days and difficult teaching environments are putting immense mental pressure on teachers and staff, “I have cried more times in my workday than I ever have in my entire profession of nine years,” Brown said. “Not in front of students because I am keeping a strong face for the kids.”
Although Brown said being with kids is extremely important to her, she wondered if there could be a more manageable schedule for teachers.
“I love being in the Edgartown School, and I think we need to remember that we are a team doing this together and we need to support each other,” Brown said.
Teacher Gail Gardner said she teaches a cohort of students and spends the majority of the day getting them to pull their masks up and maintain safe distances from each other.
“A kid thought it was funny today to pull off their mask and go over to another kid and cough in their face,” Gardner said.
She said that when more students come into the school, it is vital that the administration travel from classroom to classroom and express to students their expectations surrounding health protocols.
Teacher Connie Leuenberger said most of her day is spent helping students clean their desks, wash their hands, and clean up after lunch. She said that, because the teaching staff is stretched so thin, many educators have no assistant this year.
“I don’t go to the bathroom all day, I don’t eat lunch all day. I don’t get to do those things. We are going to keep bulldozing kids in but we don’t have the proper help,” she said.
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November 05, 2020 at 09:56AM
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Edgartown begins phasing in middle school kids - Martha's Vineyard Times
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