By Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter
Shrewsbury – The State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has said it will stop allowing schools to educate using the hybrid learning models popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 10, Shrewsbury Schools Superintendent Joseph Sawyer said his district plans to adjust in kind.
“This was done with an emphasis on the feeling that students needed to return for their wellbeing, especially their mental health,” Sawyer said at a School Committee meeting. “…Most people recognize that it is preferable to have in-person instruction where we can.”
State mandate hands herculean effort to administrators
State Education Commissioner Jeff Riley has mandated that all elementary grades must return to school for full, in-person learning by April 5. All middle school grades must be back in classrooms by April 28.
Because of the logistics involved with complex schedules, class sizes, etc., high school return dates have not yet been determined.
This marks a difference from what has become the norm across the state, this year.
In light of COVID-19, most districts have brought some students into their buildings, while leaving others to take remote classes from home on any given day.
Making this change, Sawyer noted that a full return to in-person learning will drop individual distancing between students from six to three-feet within classrooms.
Schools survey parents
Shrewsbury recently sent a survey was sent to families and staff to determine if families in the all-remote (Cohort D) wished to return to full in-person learning or continue in an all-remote format for the remainder of the school year.
Of the 1,806 students in Cohort D, 294 indicated that they would return to school, officials say.
Even though that figure is low, Sawyer added, it still provides logistical challenges. The district will need to contract with a moving company to remove furniture from classrooms to make room for more desks.
In light of all this, Sawyer said that schools will do their best to minimize classroom disruptions. But that there will be changes to classrooms and team assignments for students.
Questions remain as reopening dates near
As Shrewsbury has its fifth grade students taking classes alongside sixth, seventh and eighth grade students, administrators say they’re also submitting a waiver to the state for an exemption to its reentry deadlines.
Sawyer wants fifth grade students returning to school alongside the rest of their middle school classmates, rather than at the same time as elementary school students.
As some parents have long clamored for this return to school, district officials recognized, March 10, that this still marks a monumental shift in the personal and emotional lives of students, staff and families.
“We have to talk about expectations for our parents and teachers,” School Committee chair Sandra Fryc said. “There is so much happening in a short amount of time.”