WILMINGTON, MA — At the most recent Wilmington School Committee Meeting, Superintendent Dr. Glenn Brand announced the formation of a School Reopening Advisory Group.
Brand began by discussing some of the anticipated realities around school reopening in the fall, including:
- It will be highly likely that some degree of virtual or remote learning may need to continue.
- There is the possibility that schools may need to close intermittently, given developments in the public health of Wilmington.
- There will be an important need to continue to support the social and emotional health and well-being of students and staff.
- Is it far more likely that we will have to shape our programs and services around ensuring social distancing, which holds the potential to impact our operations (e.g., transportation, classroom arrangements, etc.)
“How many students can we reasonably transport on school buses? How many students can we have in classrooms? What does cafeteria service, if at all, look like? These are large looming questions,” Brand told the School Committee.
“Are we truly talking about a 6-foot perimeter around students at all times? To take a typical classroom, reduce capacity by 50% and spread out students by 6 feet… that may not even be possible in some of our classrooms,” Brand later added. “So many of the answers to our questions rests with recommendations from the state.”
Brand then discussed the School Reopening Advisory Committee’s three main priorities:
- Safe and healthy environments for students and staff
- Educational planning and programming
- Inclusivity, equity and support
“This will require developing and implementing flexible and innovating scheduling to ensure social distancing, health protocols and procedures in place for students and staff, and that our facilities remain safe,” said Brand. “And if school is unable to resume in the fall under normal circumstances, then the District will need to carefully attend to the multitude of issues related to remote learning.”
“To say to kids that when you’re in school, you essentially can’t socialize unless from a distance means they won’t have the emotional release to really play, talk or chat…. The deeper you really try to see what this will all look like, the harder it is to see how we’re going to do it successfully,” said School Committee member David Ragsdale, who works for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education. “It’s hard to see how we square this circle…. To say it’s not easy going to be easy is an understatement. This is going to be extremely difficult, but we’ll do the best we can… This is going to be really, really hard.”
“I don’t see how some of this is going to work,” agreed School Committee member Jay Samaha, who works as a high school teacher for Boston Public Schools. “I don’t see how classroom changes in the hallway will work… There’s so many different moving parts to think about. Thank you for thinking ahead and not being reactive.”
Brand noted that the Advisory Group, which began meeting the week of June 1, will have district leaders as core members, including Assistant Superintendents Paul Ruggiero and Christine Elliott, along with Ken Lord, Andrea Stern-Armstrong, Alice Brown-LeGrand, and Christine Murray. There will be fluidity with the membership, however, as various areas are addressed. The Group will also consist of two School Committee members.
The School Committee will further discuss this matter at their next meeting on Wednesday, June 10, 2020. The State’s Education Commissioner issued additional guidance to Superintendents late last week on how they should begin preparing for the 2020-2021 school year.
Like Wilmington Apple on Facebook. Follow Wilmington Apple on Twitter. Follow Wilmington Apple on Instagram. Subscribe to Wilmington Apple’s daily email newsletter HERE. Got a comment, question, photo, press release, or news tip? Email wilmingtonapple@gmail.com.
Wilmington Apple 