By Ally Lanasa, Staff Writer

(Aug. 20, 2020) The Worcester County Board of Education reviewed the revised “Responsible Return” model that it had to turn into the Maryland State Department of Education by last Friday during its meeting on Tuesday.

“It was a draft. We had several things that we were in the process of doing to bring this draft to fruition,” Superintendent Lou Taylor said. “The state required that this draft turn into a plan document by [Aug. 14] of which we had ours in in time.”

The original model featured five areas of focus: operations and safety, instructional program, distance learning, communication and stakeholder feedback.

Now, the “Responsible Return” model has been condensed to three topics: instructional program, operations and safety, and communication.

“As Mr. Taylor said, one of the biggest portions that we value the most out of coming together for this ‘Responsible Return’ model, was to get stakeholder input,”  Denise Shorts, the chief academic officer for grades PreK-8, told the board. “Some of our biggest changes that have happened since we last presented to you in July were due to the feedback that we received from stakeholders.”

Stakeholders — students, parents and faculty — were invited to participate in three surveys regarding transportation, continuity of learning and the full community.

Nearly 63 percent of families reported that they were comfortable using school bus transportation. However, the majority of the 2,924 did request modifications to transportation.

For the continuity of learning survey, 64.2 percent of families of 1,049 responses reported favorably about their child or children’s overall experience with continuity of learning.

Lastly, 68.2 percent of stakeholders reported that they are “neutral,” “satisfied” or “extremely satisfied” with the initial “Responsible Return” model out of 3,171 responses.

As Taylor announced at his Aug. 6 press conference, the administration has added a phase to the instructional program based on stakeholder feedback.

Students are scheduled to return to school with distance learning, or Stage One, on Sept. 8. The board of education hopes to transition into Stage Two, which is hybrid learning with a tiered support model, by Sept. 28 with health and safety conditions permitting.

Stage Two will be prioritizing students who qualify as Tier 2 or Tier 3 because of academic, social-emotional, connectivity or attendance and engagement needs.

“So, principals are really looking at a variety of indicators to determine which students they bring back in small groups to begin with on Sept. 28,” Shorts said.

She added that principals should be compiling their lists of students as well as how those students can be transported to schools.

Another factor of the recovery plan that has changed is the attendance policy for students in distance learning.

This fall, students are required to be in the synchronous sessions and/or have participated in asynchronous learning.

“Students will reply to daily attendance discussion in Schoology, and they will be marked present each day,” Shorts said. “Elementary and middle school students only need to do it one time.”

High school students will have to reply to the daily attendance discussion for each class period to be considered present.

In addition, the school system has determined the number of hours per full day for each grade level.

PHOTO COURTESY WORCESTER COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
The revised “Responsible Return” model for Worcester County Public Schools determines the expected hours of work to be completed per grade level for a full day of distance learning.

Dr. Annette Wallace, the chief operating and academic officer for grades 9-12, said students in the pre-kindergarten half-day program are expected to complete two hours of work each day and students in the pre-kindergarten full day program are expected to complete four hours of work each day.

Students in kindergarten through fifth grade are assigned four hours of work per day, students in sixth through eighth grades are assigned five to six hours of work per day and high school students are assigned six hours of work per day.

Wallace said the hours include completed offline work and do not have to be consecutive.

Dr. Dwayne Abt, the chief safety and human relations officer for the school system, gave a presentation on the updated operations and safety section.

With the announcement that the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association has postponed fall and winter sports until further notice, Abt said the school system is waiting for more guidance from the state about how athletics may proceed during the 2020-21 academic year.

Abt also said the transportation part of the recovery plan has been modified to reflect a word change from “face masks” to “face coverings.”

The safety portion of the “Responsible Return” plan has been updated to define more accurately the processes in place for proper ventilation and the establishment of isolation stations in all nursing areas.

The school district has taken another safety measure by closing all water fountains until further notice.

“We will establish protocols to ensure that all water systems are safe to use after the prolonged disuse,” Abt said. “Also, students will be encouraged to bring their own water bottles. However, food service will be able to provide water for students that do not bring their own water.”