MCPS transitions to in-person learning, prepares for double the students | News | missoulian.com

Chief Charlo Elementary custodian Nick Holzworth disinfected the plastic partitions used to separate student desks on Thursday afternoon. Missoula County Public Schools will begin the second phase of the K-2 and 6-8 reopening plan in the area this week.

Elyse Hege will attend her kindergarten class at Charlo Elementary on Tuesday, back to four working days.

The entire school has adopted protective measures including covered drinking fountains and desk plastic partitions.

Elyse Hege spent the last time on her new classroom setting on Thursday.

The teacher at the Chief Charlotte Elementary School kindergarten stocked up hand sanitizer, placed partitions between the student spaces at each table, and ordered additional books for her children. Next week, she will join the teachers in the Missoula County Public School District to welcome twice as many students to her classroom. 

 It's like she was in autumn.

"(Under hybrid) I only have two children at a table," Hagrid looked down at her table, and now each table had three or four student name tags. 

As the MCPS transitions to bring all students back four days a week, teachers and administrators are adjusting the interval between classrooms, ordering more materials and supplies, hiring new employees, and preparing for doubling the objects in the building .

Monday will still be a remote day, and the online academy is still operating. K-2 and 6-8 grades will transition this week, while 3-5 and 9-12 grades will transition next week. 

Sheriff Rob Watson said Thursday: "The biggest priority is to ensure that we can still provide safety mitigation strategies for more students in the building."

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The area’s reopening plan depends on whether the area follows the national infection control strategy, including masking, frequent hand washing and a distance of at least 3 feet, among other measures. The administrator said that meeting these guidelines and increasing the number of students is the key to a safe transition.

So far, during the entire transition period, the most important obstacle in the area is ensuring that the classrooms meet the 3-foot distance.

“We found that one of the more challenging things in more schools than other schools is planning distance,” said Brook Krininger, the director of health services in the region.

She and Vincent Giammona, MCPS COVID Response Coordinator, have been visiting each building to manage the response and said that they are modifying the classrooms according to the specific situation.

Giammona said: "All we are doing is signing in with employees. We are visiting in the classroom with employees, asking questions, taking measurements, and researching how to create a 3-foot floor as high as possible. Alienation." 

In a classroom like Principal Charge's Hege, where there are only 13 students, it is easy to create space-but not all classrooms are the same.

Krininger said: "The challenge is that some classrooms are small but have large and heavy desks, so we have to go there and help employees be creative in how to do this work." "In some cases, we may not be able to There is an increase of 3 feet between each table, so...then we look at the pods to reduce the chance of seeing many students as close contacts when a positive situation arises."

Hege said that Pod plans to keep the same group of students in the classroom together, which is a strategy she will implement.

LoriAnn Lynch, a math and science teacher at Washington High School, said she will move from 10 to 11 students in a mixed classroom to 20 students in the second stage. She said that she will be able to keep students 5 feet away, and everyone will have their own table and supplies box.

Lynch said: "There will definitely be more children, but my room and the location, I think there is still a lot of room for children."

The big problem with staying away is that at breakfast and lunch, students must take off their masks to eat. Hege said that teachers will need to emphasize that it is time for meals, not time for socializing.

"We have a matrix of expectations for the new lunch. One of them is to focus on eating instead of talking while wearing a mask for the least time."

The number of students in the area is twice that of classrooms, and the area has also ordered more materials to reduce the need for sharing and hygiene products.

Watson said: "If we can order more sets of reading materials instead of letting students share reading materials in a classroom, then they don't have to share them." "So far, we have been able to make it work because we With only half of the children there, we can sterilize those books before the next group appears the next day. We don’t have that much time, so we need more materials in the classroom, so we share less."

Lynch said she has purchased some additional materials for the school district for use in the upcoming department of rock and mineral sciences, and Hege has asked for other Chromebooks.

Watson said that MCPS is trying to achieve a one-to-one ratio with students and Chromebooks, focusing on grades 6-12.

He said: “So students either have their own equipment or don’t have them, then we will provide them with a Chromebook for them to use throughout the school year.”

Since there is only one remote day a week, teachers must also change the teaching plan.

However, Haig said that the regular presence of students can enable them to complete the curriculum more quickly.

She said: "Because we have four days now, we can complete the curriculum more quickly. This is great for teachers not to have to teach the same thing twice."

Lynch added: “I think we will be able to do it faster than if we don’t teach in person for half a day and then do remote teaching for half a day.”

At the regional level, MCPS has enhanced its contact tracking capabilities to train employees on standby when needed.

"If we feel like we are entering a place where we are beginning to find ourselves struggling with tracking capabilities, then we have indeed trained other employees through the guidance of Johns Hopkins University, and we will be able to increase other employees. Help us in Tracking," Giammona said.

In addition, they have begun to provide rapid COVID testing for teachers and employees who have symptoms. So far, they have completed 137 tests and identified 26 positive cases.

Although teachers were recently placed behind in the vaccine rollout plan revised by Governor Greg Gianforte, in the face of the increase in the number of students, the administration is also working hard to vaccinate qualified teachers and faculty as soon as possible vaccine.

Giammona said: "Since we are not a distributor yet, all we really want to do is provide our employees with the correct information and tell them where they can get the vaccine if they meet the conditions."

Krininger said that by the end of last week, the region is expected to vaccinate about 100 staff in Phase 1A, including school nurses and other staff who provide medical services.

Krininger said: "When we enter the 1B model, because personal information is involved, we will have to continue to inform our employees because we know which providers are entering the 1B model and encourage them to contact their healthcare providers."

Ultimately, MCPS hopes to provide its own vaccination, which is especially important in the 1C phase including all teachers and school staff.

Giammona said: "As time goes by, we will check whether we are approved as a provider. The safety of our employees is our top priority, so we do everything possible to speed up the production of vaccines and deliver them to us Of employees, I think it is so, so critical." 

MCPS hopes to maintain the second phase structure of in-person learning four days a week until spring. However, the biggest incentive for the region to retreat to a remote environment is that due to contact tracing and isolation requirements, the virus outbreak has caused a plummeting level of staffing.

Watson said: "When we determine that there are enough people to continue the basic functions of the school day, it is that we will conduct distance learning for the entire building."

These staffing problems are most likely to occur among students in lower grades.

He said: "Those buildings generally have fewer people." "In a basic building, you may only have 25-30 employees, so if you have four to five employees who are absent from work due to quarantine, it does. Have an impact on schools."

Last week, MCPS posted a recruitment message on Facebook, stating that there are nearly 50 vacancies in the region because of the need for more staff when moving to face-to-face learning.

In the fall, the region strives to fill vacant positions in hybrid models and online colleges. Watson said that from custodians to passing guards to kitchen assistants to teachers and substitutes, filling vacancies is essential to ensure a safe return. 

Watson said: "In some cases, we may use some parent volunteers to fill our positions until we can hire permanent employees."

They also increased their salary levels, hoping to attract more applicants.

He said: "We know that to compete with some other agencies in the town, we have to approach $15 an hour," he added, adding that MCPS also has health benefits.

KaCee Ballou, head of the local teachers' union, said that although the school district supports the purchase of materials, hiring personnel, promoting vaccine procurement and helping to coordinate and manage the transition, the local adjustment burden has fallen on the teachers.

Ballou said: "The teacher was told to make it work again in a short period of time. I think this is part of the effort. There are a lot of requests to anyone."

She added that the adjustments teachers must make vary across school districts and school buildings, and some teachers have easier learning time than others.

Ballou said: "We have mixed emotions. It is much easier to teach in person. We do have a group of people who are happy to come back, and then a group of people who are happy to bring (students) back, but are nervous about health and safety."

Hege said that with only 13 students, her transition was easier than others.

"I think many teachers feel very stressed."

She added that the school district has been discussing moving younger grades to the second stage for a longer period of time, so these teachers have also made more preparations.

"For many teachers, such as kindergarten to second grade, we know it's coming," Haig said. "For the teacher who didn't know what was coming, and then suddenly all the high schools came back, I felt sad that it didn't get much discussion."

Although she and others are anxious, Haig said that in-person teaching is the best way for students to learn: “Parents are very good at working from home with their children and completing distance learning, but they are able to stay with them for four person days. There may be only five days at a time, which is irreplaceable."

She also said that since then, teachers feel more at ease

Indicates that the school is not the main spreader of the virus, and the district made this recommendation at a board meeting on January 12.

Watson said that MCPS needs the “grace and patience” of the community in its efforts to make the transition as safe as possible.

Watson said: "We have a lot of staff working to make things as safe as possible. However, we are anxious, just like some parents are anxious. Some teachers are anxious. Students are worried about switching, so we really need to A lot of patience."

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Laura Scheer is an education reporter from Missouri.

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After MCPS reduced the use of mental health services last fall, local service providers contracted by the region were forced to fire nearly a quarter of therapists last month.

The board approved separate motions for K-8 and high school students to transition to more in-person guidance during the second phase of the second semester (that is, starting on January 25).

The video is hosted by Mike Crockett, a science teacher in Missoura, and aims to provide teachers, homeschoolers, parents, and other educators with a free one-click tool in classrooms and remote environments.

KaCee Ballou, president of the Missoula Education Association, said: "This is a hugely disruptive and frustrating blow."

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