Manassas schools propose denying students entry unless good health is verfied

Manassas City Public Schools students may be barred from going to school in the fall unless their parents verify their health.

During a July special school board meeting, Dr. Melissa Saunders, executive director of student achievement for the school division, presented a school reopening plan to the School Board. That plan, which was created by the division’s school reopening task force, proposed requiring ‘parents to attest daily as to the health of their children prior to entry to their respective school by completing the health survey.’ If the parents refuse to do so, according to the presentation, students will be ‘denied entry to the school until completed – no exceptions.’ This rule would also require staff to attest to their health daily before entering their school building.

“The task force understood the daunting challenge we are facing during these unprecedented times,” said Manassas City Public Schools Superintendant Dr. Kevin Newman.

While it may seem new, this rule is required by Governor Ralph Northam’s planned phased reopening of Virginia public schools. According to his Phase 3 reopening guidelines, schools must ‘conduct daily health screenings for symptoms and history of exposure for students and staff.’

Northam’s Phase 3 school reopening guidelines also allow Virginia public schools to offer in-person instruction for all students, with social distance measures in place, an additional proposal that the school division is considering. Within the presentation, Saunders discussed four reopening options for the school division, all of which, according to Superintendent Newman, are subject to change with the influx and/or decrease of the new coronavirus.

The reopening proposals are as follows:

1. Reopen school for full in-person learning utilizing minimal operational adjustments to adhere to federal, state, and local guidance. Under this plan, the division would have students return to school in a nearly normal fashion. Students, however, would have to social distance, wear face masks, and undergo extra sanitation and hygiene measures.

2. Reopen school with a combination of in-person learning and distance learning to adhere to federal, state, and local guidance. This would be conducted through a 25% or 50% return model, in which parents would hold the option to do completely virtual learning with students. In both return models, staff would be required to report to school five days a week, have four days of face-to-face instruction with students, and be allotted Mondays for professional development/planning. In the 25% return model, students would attend school once a week on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, at 25% capacity. In the 50% return model, students would attend school twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday, or Wednesday and Friday, at 50% capacity. Students will be assigned a group to determine what day(s) they will attend school. In the time students are not at school, they would complete work online. Additional in-person learning may be given to students with additional needs, such as English language learners, special education students, and Pre-K students.

3. Reopen school with full-distance learning. In this model, teachers would provide live instruction four days a week to students via videoconference, with Mondays remaining reserved for professional development/planning. Students in Pre-K to 2nd grade would receive a minimum of 2 1/2-3 hours of teacher instruction a day, students in grades 3-4 would receive 3-3 1/2 hours a day, and middle/high school students would receive 3 1/2-4 hours a day. Students would utilize Schoolology in this model as well.

4. Parent Selected 100% distance learning option. This would entail all the components of full-distance learning.

To supplement the distance and hybrid learning options, the task force proposed giving all students from Pre-K to 12th grade a laptop, as well as establishing mobile hotspots in student households for instructional use, which would cost the division $389,000 if implemented. Overall, the supplies needed to reopen schools, as well as the laptops and other needs, will cost the school division $784,000.

Online learning from these devices would be conducted on Schoology, a learning management system that allows teachers to virtually curate and assign lessons, quizzes, and exams to students. The system will also include social-emotional learning and supports, as well as mental health supports.

“[Our] goal is to use as many familiar platforms and resources as possible for students and teachers,” stated the presentation.

The school board will vote on the division’s reopening plans during their July 14 meeting.