Our Runway Grows Short

For the last four weeks in this blog, I have stated that our intention is to start school on August 24th with students in attendance at our brick and mortar buildings. What has been left unsaid thus far is whether or not we will welcome back all our students at once or if we will start the school year with our hybrid model. Unfortunately the 'conditions on the ground' continue to be very fluid and the guidance we are receiving isn't always clear or even helpful. Even more unfortunate is the fact that we are starting to run short on runway. With a little less than four weeks to go before the start of the school year, we need to make a decision. The challenge is making our final decision close enough to the start of the school year so we have the most current, up to date data available to us (and hopefully metrics that can guide our thinking). At the same time we need to be mindful of all of you, not too late in our decision making and thus catching everyone off guard. We are also very aware that whatever decision is ultimately made, a number of people are going to be unhappy. Before I get into the mechanics and timeline of this decision, I want to spend just a little time today talking about our hybrid plan. 

Our hybrid model is similar to many that you have heard about from other school districts around the state. And if you have been following the news cycles, these decisions are just as difficult in our neighboring districts as they are here. The arguments for and against a hybrid, remote learning, or fully onsite are the same here as they are there. Be that as it may, it doesn't make these decisions any less difficult, except I do suppose the old adage holds true that misery loves company. The whole idea of using a hybrid approach is to implement a plan that supports the current physical distancing recommendations. We have to be clear here: there is absolutely no way to create the physical distancing that is necessary and recommended by the CDC without operating a hybrid model. Certainly this is one of the reasons why we made the decisions we did with regard to the face covering requirement. Now, admittedly there are challenges in this type of strategy [hybrid] because once students leave school for the day, we have lost vector control. Children play with one another outdoors (who may or may not be in the same 'vector' as they are), visit families and friends who visit with their family and friends...you get the point, right? Then there is our activity program. One can't really play football or volleyball every other day very well, can we?

So perhaps the question is, what's the point then? Our point in the hybrid plan quite simply is vector control. The theory works like this: if we have active cases while a hybrid model is being employed, the maximum number of possible primary exposures is limited to the group in attendance on that particular day, or roughly half the number of students. Further and perhaps even more important, we have to remember the mitigation benefits that are attained by physical distancing. Even if a case becomes confirmed, under our hybrid model not only have we decreased our possible primary and even secondary exposure rate because of the fact we have fewer students to deal with in that scenario, we are able to physical distance. Again, while vector control is important, physical distancing is equal to; or perhaps even superior to vector control. Physical distancing coupled with face masking requirements significantly reduces the risk of transmission. Finally you have to remember mitigation means to reduce, not eliminate risks. So even if the vector 'bubble' isn't maintained outside the school, we have mitigated control within the school. 

Our Model

The hybrid model we plan to utilize essentially breaks our student body into two groups. An 'A' group and a 'B' group based on family unit. Roughly equivalent in size, this would enable us to operate at approximately 50% capacity with students onsite. While group 'A' is receiving instruction onsite, group 'B' would be learning remotely. Now, the governor's current order requires that under the hybrid model, at least half of all instruction occur onsite over a two week period. So then, if you think about this over a two week period, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of week 1, group 'A' would attend class in person. Group 'B' then, would attend class in person on Thursday and Friday. Then on week 2, group 'A' would attend class in person on Monday and Tuesday while group 'B' attends class on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. 

Wednesday is the key day due to the fact our plan would be to maintain our early release schedule that was adopted as part of the original calendar. This would enable us to bring our cleaning crew in early to start the deep clean for the next group of students to attend the following day while teachers are getting ready for the next group and following up with remote learners.  

There are a couple of important features of this hybrid plan that will be in effect even under the regular onsite model with all students in attendance five days a week. First, we anticipate utilizing a block schedule for the foreseeable future, regardless of whether or not we operate a hybrid or have all students in the building. The block really impacts grades 7-12 and is not a new concept in Hudson. Last used a decade ago, the block schedule operates on an even/odd premise where on odd days we operate periods 1, 3, 5, 7 and on the even day periods 2, 4, 6, 8 Again, when we think about vector control, this eliminates passing periods (by half) and lengthens the class period by a factor of approximately two. This also has the added benefit of providing teachers time to meet the needs of students who are participating in voluntary offsite learning. The other important feature used in hybrid and regular onsite delivery impacts the elementary. This consists of scheduling one grade at a time for lunch and one grade at a time for recess. 

Decision Point

The Board of Directors have called for a special meeting on August 10th at 5:00. At that meeting we anticipate a decision on which model to use in order to start the school year. Because of this, we are extending the deadline to sign up for voluntary offsite learning to August 14th. Some have suggested that it would be helpful to know how we plan to start the school year prior to making a decision about voluntary offsite learning. We agree. I have included the link to this sign up here for your convenience.

We have spent the last several weeks discussing our remote learning plan and the hybrid model. You have had an opportunity to see our mitigation plan and have an understanding of what processes and protocols we are putting into place in an effort to keep your child safe while at school. You have answered numerous questions for us and participated in a plethora of surveys. As the title of this article suggests, our runway grows short. The start of school is now less than 4 weeks away. I have one final (maybe) query of you. On Friday of this week, I will be sending out one very quick, single question survey for you to answer: "I believe school should start: remotely, hybrid, or onsite". We'll accept responses for one week only. 

One cautionary note for you though: your response to this question will not construe a vote, but will merely be one of many data points the board will consider when making this decision. Other data points will include guidance from the Iowa Department of Education, health metrics provided by the local health department, a query from our employees, the Iowa Department of Education, and the entire public school system that makes up Black Hawk County.