In her May 12 blog post, Superintendent of Gorham Schools, Heather Perry, spoke about the possible scenarios for schools opening this fall. She shared the initial framework only as details are still being worked out.
“Basically, the framework we are working with has us set up into three ‘levels’ of operations that will be based on the specific conditions we may face as the school year opens and as we continue to move through it,” said Perry.
Level 1 would be continuing distance learning much like everyone is doing now, but the “stakes” would likely be a little higher. Although the focus would still be on the social/emotional needs of students, academics will also likely play a larger role now that Gorham has devices for all students, an ability to solve connectivity issues, and a better understanding of teaching required.
Level 3 would be operating schools under very “traditional” environments. There may be a few restrictions, but not many. This level would be as close to “normal” as schools will likely get prior to a vaccine being widely available.
Level 2 is in between 1 and 2. Schools may be able to do some face-to-face instruction, but they would need to find a way to limit the number of students and staff in the buildings at any given time to maintain social distancing. There would also be significant protocols in place for sanitization and the mandatory wearing of face masks along with other safety measures.
“The goal in creating these ‘levels’ is to be able to create an operational plan for the coming year that allows us to fluidly move between these types of conditions while maintaining our focus on educational programming,” said Perry. “As you can imagine, the logistics for these levels, especially Level 2, offer some significant challenges which is what we are working on figuring out now.”
Perry went on to say that she has “full faith that we will have a very solid and detailed operational plan outlined before the end of this school year that can be shared with everyone so you all can have the summers to plan appropriately.”
She recently shared her completed third draft of the operations plan with the medical advisory group and planned to incorporate any feedback. Additional drafts will be shared with the district leadership team and teacher leader groups from around the district before being brought to the School Committee (SC) for a final presentation.
“My hope is that the MDOE (Maine Department of Education) has their ‘checklist’ for opening of school complete in early June so that while we are working to put finishing touches on our plan, we can incorporate their requirements in there to ‘tweak’ and then align with their work,” said Perry.
Perry would like the SC to approve the operations plan by its last meeting in June. Once finalized, she plans to share it broadly with all stakeholders.