By Jennifer L. Grybowski, Contributing Writer
Westborough – The Westborough School Committee heard a variety of COVID-19 related updates at their meeting Oct. 21.
Changing learning models
Superintendent Amber Bock told the committee the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) requires the district to offer parents the opportunity to change learning models at the end of the trimester/semester.
“Public educators who are just getting systems in place are not in favor of this,” she said. “I want to be on record in saying that this is a DESE guideline that is causing consternation among multiple districts as we face concerns around a break in stability and a continuity in daily instruction that we are starting to seeing starting to occur in both models.”
Requests need to be made four weeks before the end of the term and approved K-8 students will transfer Monday, Jan. 4, 2021 while grade 9-12 students will transfer Monday, Feb. 1, 2020. Parents will be given instructions and deadlines for how to request a transfer in late November. However, Bock urged people to stay within the model they originally selected.
“They should commit to the relationships and the decisions you made and the class structure you’ve been given,” she said. “Our faculty prefers that and I want to be firmly on record in saying that.”
Assistant Superintendent Daniel Mayer agreed, saying there is no doubt there will be some academic loss for those who transfer. This is due to the fact that when students transfer, they are going to be dropping into new classes as if they just moved to town.
“The building of connections with other peers and with the faculty are essential and if we have a shift in the middle of the trimester or semester that student will have a new teacher,” Mayer said. “There is definitely going to be a slowdown and a hard transition. It takes several weeks in the beginning of the year to get acclimated with the expectations and establish a relationship with the teacher.”
Bock and Mayer also pointed out that if too many students request to come back into the building, grades and classes will have to be configured, and that parents should consider the effects of their decisions on the entirety of the student population.
“It’s a giant jigsaw puzzle,” Mayer said. “Current students will get shuffled around and be impacted even though they didn’t ask for a change. We will do the best we can under the circumstances to accommodate but we want to flag very clearly to the whole community how the impact of your decision if they move in massive numbers are going to have on disrupting our mid-year.”
Bock said she realizes that some students are having a difficult time working remotely, both for academic and social-emotional needs.
“But I want to emphasize the importance of instructional stability for students and the models they are in,” she said “When you selected to be remote, you have to commit you can sustain that level of screen time all year. If you want to switch because your student is beginning to fatigue doing that much learning on screen, you’re still going to come into a new classroom setting where they are going to have to plug into what’s going on and figure out how to make up what’s in between. It’s an important family decision that really needs to be thoughtful.”
Mayer also said that if people are thinking about going fully remote due to rising cases, they are encouraged not to switch because if infection rates become unsafe the school will go fully remote.
“It’s in everybody’s interest if you can hang in with us,” he said. “If we go all remote, your student stays with the same teacher and that’s really important.”
The district will be putting out a survey to families in the next two weeks to gauge interest in switching learning models.
Preschool moving to in-person model
Things are very different at the Westborough Early Childhood Center however. Bock said she was pleased to report that because the preschool cohorts are so small, the district feels comfortable collapsing the hybrid model and bringing in all of the students who have requested hybrid and have been attending for up to four days a week so they can participate in a very engaged preschool setting live with their teachers. In addition, should remote students wish to move to in-person learning, there is space to absorb a certain number of those students.
“I’m very pleased with this group of families who come in philosophically in a setting where they see every child schooled together with modifications necessary embedded in typical, daily instruction,” she said.
The Westborough Early Childhood currently has 53 students who are standalone remote preschool students.
“These are students with parents and caregivers at home and want a portion of their day to be guided and supported by school,” Bock said. “This is a true partnership with the parents entering into a collaborative engagement.”
By the numbers
Bock said the district is doing their best to continue balancing privacy with transparency.
“With the tension that exists in a close knit small community, it remains very, very important our data remains confidential…while we also provide information that builds confidence and transparency with our community,” she said.
She also noted the district has shifted the posting of the data dashboard – which tracks things like students with possible systems, positive test results, contract tracing, isolation and quarantine — from Mondays to Fridays in an effort to keep data fresh. There have been eight positive student cases across the district so far, mostly from the beginning of the school year.
“We know across the state, across the nation, we will have positive cases,” Bock said. “What’s important is the protocols of the multiple mitigating factors maintain an environment we feel we can run the district, provide instruction and guide students in opportunities to be schooled in public education while keeping ourselves safe.”
School Committee Lisa Edinberg said she has had several concerned people contact her about students socializing, and pointed out the district can only do what they can do on school grounds and parents need to be responsible for what their kids do off school grounds.
