EDUCATION

Rebuilding America: School could be a 'whole new ballgame' when students return

Eric Rogers
Florida Today

As Florida reopens from the extended COVID-19 shutdown, parents anxiously await word on what changes are in store for their students if and when they return to class in the fall.

While it's still too early to tell — major decisions will emerge as summer rolls on — school officials and education experts agree on one thing:

School will look much different than normal.

"It's gonna be a whole new ballgame for people," said Maria Ferguson, executive director of the Center on Education Policy in Washington D.C.

Possibilities run the gamut from a complete return to face-to-face instruction with at least some social distancing, Ferguson said, which could change how schools handle things like cafeteria lunches and recess, to a continuation of virtual or distance learning from home, or even a "blended" learning model that combines aspects of both.

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A lot is still unknown until the trajectory of the pandemic unfolds, and a predicted resurgence of the virus in the fall could throttle whatever plans for normalcy school districts devise.

"They're just going to have to work through that piece by piece, and it's going to look different everywhere in the country," Ferguson said.

Much will hinge on directives from state and federal agencies, which have only begun to tackle the issue.

The state Board of Education on May 13 heard a list of recommendations from the Florida Association of District School Superintendents, urging unified standards on items like daily virus screening, personal protective measures and acceptable numbers of students per classroom or on school buses, that will allow school districts to shape their reopening plans.

The association also urged school districts to begin drafting, in collaboration with local health professionals, various protocols for social distancing, deep cleaning and screening and prevention, among others.

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Brevard Public Schools Superintendent Mark Mullins said the school district's newly formed reopening task force would consider those questions in the coming weeks, though he cautioned answers would take time.

"They're looking at models of what the school year could look like, as well as safety measures that we need to put into place, not just for our students but for our employees," Mullins said. "That team is just in the very early stages of detailed planning. It's a complex task."

At a minimum, he said, families can expect increased hygiene measures, including enhanced cleaning standards for classrooms and other high-traffic surfaces and a sustained focus on hand-washing, as well as new protocols for accessing school facilities.

Other best practices would adhere to guidelines from the state and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he said.

"Some of the same measures we're seeing around the community, the stores and retailers we go to, will become part of what our schools look like," Mullins said. 

Perhaps the trickiest problem is social distancing.

How districts approach that question could ultimately make the biggest difference in what school looks like, said William Gordon, a former Orange County superintendent and lecturer in educational leadership at the University of Central Florida.

Restrictions on class size to limit physical contact, for instance, would mean schools have to find space to put their students and teachers to teach them. Districts that already struggle with shortages of both may have to get creative to meet the challenge, Gordon said.

"Are you looking at double shifts, where you only bring half the (students) in on some days and half on others? Or bring in some in the morning and some in the afternoon?" he said.

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More likely, districts will be looking to combine "multiple options" to meet the varying needs of their students and staff.

"That could be a combination of online, 'blended' learning, classes face-to-face and maybe not even having traditional (school) boundaries anymore" in some cases, he said, instead allowing teachers to virtually instruct students from other schools or districts to cover gaps in staffing, similar to Florida Virtual School.

"The traditional setting is no longer, at this point, probably an option," Gordon said.

Private schools, with their typically greater resources and leaner student populations, are perhaps better equipped to handle rapid changes to the learning environment.

"I never thought I'd say it, but as a smaller school, we're at a decided advantage," said Marshall D. Willman, president of Florida Preparatory Academy in Melbourne.

With over 40 full-time faculty members to just under 100 students on 12 acres of property, he said, "we can very easily manage proper social distancing and the activity between classes."

Fewer students makes it easier to manage group environments like lunch and physical education, Willman said, while more teachers and smaller class sizes can allow the school to take advantage of a glut of newly renovated classroom space.

Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy is a bit larger at about 880 students, but its greater investment in technology affords it options that might not be feasible for the average public school.

"We're looking at outfitting a few classrooms with virtual learning capabilities, so even if (teachers) are down the hall or in a different room or at home, (students) could still have that experience," said President Katherine Cobb.

Its independence also grants more flexibility to share resources with other private schools around the state, Cobb said.

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"If there is a school that has an especially good program, we could work with them, and they could work with us on the things Holy Trinity does quite well," she said. "If there is a scenario that does involve remote learning, we don't have geographical limitations."

Still, Cobb and Willman said, like public school districts, private schools will likely base many decisions on state and federal health guidelines, which remain forthcoming. 

As far as how school will look in the fall, Cobb said, "if we could effectively answer that question, we'd be millionaires."

Eric Rogers is the education watchdog reporter with FLORIDA TODAY.

Contact Rogers at 321-242-3717 or esrogers@floridatoday.com. Follow him on Twitter @EricRogersFT. Continue to support local journalism and become a subscriber.

A student from Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Melbourne engages in a virtual reading lesson during the COVID-19 school closures.

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