Great Barrington — All three schools in the Berkshire Hills Regional School District reopened this week using a remote-only model of instruction, with a hybrid model combining remote and face-to-face learning taking effect three weeks later.
For the youngest students in the district, that could soon change if a proposal from Muddy Brook Elementary School Principal Timothy Lee is acceptable to the Berkshire Hills Education Association, the union representing faculty in the district.
Last month, the school committee decided that until Monday, Oct. 5, the school district will operate with a remote-only model out of an abundance of caution in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At that time, the district will transition to a “hybrid model,” in which half the student population would be engaged in face-to-face learning on campus with teachers and staff on Mondays and Tuesdays, with the other half reporting for the same on Thursdays and Fridays. No students will be present on Wednesdays, when the custodial staff will perform a deep cleaning of the buildings. The date for a transition for full in-person learning has not been set.
“One of the challenges in distance learning is providing an effective, engaging distance-learning program to young children who, because of their age and where they’re at developmentally, doing things virtually is not, in any sense of the word, optimal,” Lee told the school committee Thursday night. Lee further described remote learning for the youngest children in the district as “perhaps even developmentally inappropriate.”
See video below of Thursday’s Berkshire Hills Regional School Committee meeting via Zoom. Fast forward to 33:00 to see Lee present his plan:
Lee presented a plan (click here to see it) whereby most students in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten would return the week of Oct. 5, for full in-person learning four days a week instead of two.
“More than any other grade, parents of pre-K and kindergarten students have opted to educate their kids at home, leaving class sizes for in-person learning at much lower levels,” Lee said, referring to the hybrid plan slated to be implemented Oct. 5. “About 20% of families have made this choice to date.”
Lee said that the number of children in pre-K and kindergarten whose parents have opted to engage in remote-only learning even after Oct. 5 is sufficiently low that the class size of the remaining students would be small enough that physical distancing protocols could be met. Most of them, therefore, could come to school for in-person learning on Mondays, Tuesday, Thursdays and Fridays. The class size would be 12 students or less.
Here is Lee’s plan in bullet form:
- Collapse two sections of pre-K into one. Identified students would attend four days a week and peer partners would alternate in a hybrid configuration. Pre-K teacher Jill Topham would lead the pre-K. Pre-K teacher Jessica Louzon would support remote learning for grades pre-K, early kindergarten and kindergarten.
- Hire a long-term sub for early-K teacher Kaitlin Scarbro, who would then be reassigned to become a remote-learning teacher for third grade.
- All kindergarten students attend four days. Current numbers would allow no more than 12 students per classroom, which is within Berkshire Hills’ physical distancing limit.
“If we got a wave of new K students, we may have to adjust and revert back to alternating hybrid cohorts, but for now, four days a week will mean a much more enriched and appropriate K experience with only one day of distance learning,” Lee said.
But the plan cannot be implemented by Oct. 5 unless it passes muster with the teachers union, which must soon engage in negotiations with the school committee and Superintendent Peter Dillon.
“I think it’s great that we’re getting the younger kids back in,” said school committee member Anne Hutchinson of Great Barrington.
“I think this is a really good plan,” added committee Chairman Steve Bannon.
Committee member Bill Fields of Great Barrington, a retired teacher, wanted to know what would happen if some of the parents who opted for remote-only learning for this fall changed their minds. Could that change the viability of Lee’s plan?
Lee said, in that case, classes could revert back to hybrid programming, or staff could be “reallocated” within the building and/or a new section could be created.
Lee added that there is “fairly widespread support from teachers and staff for this change.” Still, formal support from the BHEA will be needed. And that might be easier said than done.
In July, Dillon presented a draft proposal for reopening the schools, which were closed March 17 when, in the face of the COVID-19 public health crisis, Gov. Charlie Baker issued a series of executive orders that eventually closed the schools for the rest of the academic year. A technology-based distance learning model was instituted for the spring at Berkshire Hills in place of an in-person program, as planning began for what form a reopening would take.
The proposal Dillon presented over the summer recommended starting the year on Sept. 14 with a hybrid model. But the BHEA had other ideas, suggesting a “phased-in remote learning plan” to begin the year.
Eventually, a compromise was reached to allow for three weeks of remote learning followed by the hybrid approach until such time as it was safe to resume traditional full-time in-person learning. After earlier union negotiations, the thorny subject of allowing some teachers to work from home during the remote phase was discussed last week.
The school committee did not vote on Lee’s proposal, opting instead to take action after negotiations with the BHEA. The school committee meets again Thursday, Sept. 24, at 6 p.m. via Zoom. Click here to view the agenda.
