Hoover schools to start with 'staggered' instruction schedule 1st 4 weeks

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Students in Hoover schools who were signed up for in-person instruction on the school campus this year won’t be coming to school five days a week after all — at least not for the first four weeks.

The Hoover school board on Monday night gave unanimous approval to a plan proposed by Superintendent Kathy Murphy that will have those students coming to school two days a week and having online instruction the other three days of the week — for at least the first four weeks of school (Aug. 20-Sept. 18).

The change comes in light of increased community spread of the COVID-19 disease and recommendations from health officials that students practice social distancing in school settings, Murphy said.

Hoover schools simply don’t have the space necessary to educate students 6 feet apart, and the only way to make that possible was to offer a “staggered” schedule, she said. They do believe students can practice social distancing with students coming to school on different days of the week, she said.

For the 8,800 students whose parents chose in-person instruction, they will come to school either on Mondays and Thursdays or on Tuesdays and Fridays. Which students come on which days depends on their high school feeder zone.

For students at Spain Park High School and its feeder schools (Berry Middle and Greystone, Riverchase, Rocky Ridge and Shades Mountain elementary schools), if their last name begins with A-K, they will go to school in person on Mondays and Thursdays. If their last name begins with L-Z, they will go to school in person on Tuesdays and Fridays.

For students at Hoover High School and its feeder schools (Bumpus and Simmons middle schools, Brock’s Gap Intermediate, and Bluff Park, Deer Valley, Green Valley, Gwin, South Shades Crest and Trace Crossings elementary schools), if their last name begins with A-L, they will go to school in person on Mondays and Thursdays. If their last name begins with M-Z, they will go to school in person on Tuesdays and Fridays.

School officials will make accommodations for children from the same household with different last names that would have them going to school on different days, Murphy said.

Also, special needs students who normally attend self-contained classrooms will come to school for half a day, five days per week, Murphy said.

Some people proposed having students come two days in a row, such as Mondays and Tuesdays, instead of splitting their in-person instruction days apart, but Murphy said she believes it’s better for students not to go that long without seeing their teacher in person.

None of these changes will directly impact students whose parents chose online instruction only. That instruction will continue to be offered online.

MASKS FOR ALL STUDENTS & STAFF

Another change from the plan announced July 13 is that all students in Hoover public schools — not just those in grades 3-12 — now will be required to wear face masks while at school. Previously, students in pre-kindergarten through second grade were required to wear face masks on buses but not once in their classrooms.

Murphy said she understands it is challenging for younger children to keep face masks on for extended periods of time, but that is now the preference based on feedback from teachers.

Additional restrictions may include no dressing out for physical education, limited class changing for elementary students and limits on drills that would have students moving around campus.

This plan brings students to school at a “level 3” COVID-19 response (with some slight modifications from what was presented July 13), Murphy said. School officials will reassess the situation to determine how to proceed after the first four weeks of school, she said.

Things could continue the same, or there could be more or fewer restrictions, depending on the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests in the community, hospitalization and death numbers, and any specific situations that may develop within the school district, Murphy said.

Hoover school officials are tracking numbers daily and staying in communication with state and county health officials and education leaders from the state and nearby school districts, Murphy said.

School officials would like to maintain as much consistency as possible between Hoover schools, but it’s always possible that one school could face more restrictions than another, depending on health conditions in a given area, she said.

Of the 13,352 students who have enrolled in Hoover schools so far for this year, 66% opted for in-person instruction, while 30% chose virtual instruction and 4% chose a blended form of instruction, central office administrator Ron Dodson said.

At individual schools, the percentage choosing virtual instruction ranged anywhere from 25% to 45%, Dodson said.

Districtwide, that left about 8,800 coming to school on a given day, but now, with staggered attendance, that number will be roughly 4,400 students in school on any given day, Dodson said.

Buses will still run as previously scheduled but now will have fewer students on them.

ATHLETICS, BANDS AND CHOIRS

Athletics will proceed per the guidelines and best practices recommended by the Alabama High School Athletic Association, Murphy said.

“I understand how important athletics is in the life of our students,” she said.

The elephant in the room is football, Murphy said.

“When you play football, you’re sweating all over each other and tumbling around on the ground. I get the concerns that that presents for families and parents,” Murphy said. “I will tell you that we are looking at how do we support our athletes, but I will say to you football is football, and contact sports are contact sports. How you minimize some of that — we’re going to do our best, but we’re going to play rough and tumble football.”

As of right now, football players in the Hoover system will not have any kind of face shields attached to their helmets, Assistant Superintendent Tera Simmons said. If a decision was made to add those, the shields would cost $20 per helmet, she said.

Spectators will be limited to 50% of the stadium capacity, and all spectators must practice social distancing between family groups and wear masks, per state health orders, Murphy said. Ticketing and parking will be handled in a “touchless” manner, meaning no exchanging of money at the gate, she said.

All Hoover middle and high school home games will be broadcast live on the National Federation of High Schools Network, so fans who cannot attend will be able to watch games online, Murphy said.

Full high school marching bands will be at home games and will practice social distancing both on the field and in the stands, she said. Hoover and Spain Park will send smaller pep bands to away games, and bands will perform on the field only at their home games, she said.

Cheerleaders will wear masks and practice social distancing for the most part, but just as football players are allowed to have some contact, cheerleaders will be allowed to do some stunts, Murphy said.

There will be no mixing and mingling allowed on the fields after the games, as is frequently the custom, especially after wins, Murphy said.

“We want to be celebratory, but we’ve got to have limits,” she said. “We’re just going to have to be happy in our hearts and doing cartwheels in our souls.”

School board member Amy Tosney asked about what choirs and show choirs are going to do. Recommendations from national groups have varied, she said, and she would like to know whether students will be singing, humming or “clapping for credits.” Whatever is decided, there needs to be consistency among Hoover schools, he said.

Murphy said school officials still need to get choir directors together to discuss the matter.

PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES

The school district has received some money from the state and federal governments to help purchase protective equipment, Murphy said.

Equipment and supplies purchased have included partitions to put between students sitting at shared tables, partitions for teachers and school nurses, face shields for all employees, additional thermometers, hand sanitizer bought in 55-gallon drums and sanitizer dispensers, she said.

Murphy said there was some misunderstanding regarding communication with teachers about each classroom getting one bottle of hand sanitizer and one case of disinfecting wipes recently.

The intent was to let each teacher know they would have that to start the school year and that teachers would not get stockpiles of cleaning supplies upfront, she said. But it was never the intent to say that would be all each teacher would get for the semester, she said.

“We will provide what our teachers need in order to provide a safe learning environment,” she said. “If we can’t provide the supplies we need to provide a safe environment, we’re going to need to go to virtual school.”

There is indeed a supply and demand issue at hand, Murphy said. The school district doesn’t have an endless supply of cleaning materials, but it should have enough already to get through several months, if not the first semester, she said.

SYMPTOMATIC STUDENTS & POSITIVE TESTS

Murphy said Monday night that school officials still were awaiting recommendations from the Alabama Department of Public Health regarding what to do if a student or staff member became symptomatic or had a positive COVID-19 test result.

A version of the Alabama Department of Public Health’s “Back-to-school Toolkit” dated July 29 advised school districts to isolate and send home any students or staff members who begin showing symptoms of COVID-19. Students or staff who test positive for the disease should quarantine for 10 days with one day of recovery without fever or fever-reducing medication before returning to school, according to the toolkit.

Also, any student or staff member who was within 6 feet of a symptomatic student for 15 minutes or longer would be deemed a “close contact” and asked to go home until COVID-19 or another diagnosis is confirmed. If the original student or staff member did receive a positive test, any “close contacts” would be advised to self-quarantine for 14 days from the time of exposure and monitor their health closely.

School nurses are to inform the Alabama Department of Public Health about any positive cases so contact tracing can be done in a confidential manner, and areas where the student or staff member were should be aggressively cleaned and disinfected.

See more details from the Back-to-school Toolkit here.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

Murphy said it would be too time-intensive and labor-intensive for school officials to check every student’s temperature every day. School officials will take temperatures of students randomly and if a student is showing symptoms or visiting the health room, she said.

However, school officials are relying on parents to be the first line of defense against a COVID-19 outbreak in a school, Murphy said. Parents should check their children’s temperature before sending them to school and monitor their children for other symptoms of the disease, which include coughing, difficulty breathing, fatigue, headache, sore throat, chills, muscle or body aches, new loss of taste or smell, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting, congestion or runny nose.

Students showing those symptoms or with a fever of 100 or higher should stay home, Murphy said.

Murphy said she continues to receive many emails from parents concerned about the return to school. Some are passionate about wanting to get the school doors open, and others are equally as passionate with reservations about children going to school given the level of community transmission happening, she said.

She believes strongly that in-person instruction is the superior form of instruction, but she also wants to provide that as safely as possible for both students and employees, she said.