Masks on buses, fewer kids in class, no rallies. Modesto board gets schools update
Modesto City Schools staff sketched for board members Monday evening how the school year might look when it begins in August. But given how quickly the COVID-19 landscape still is changing, the picture they drew is more likely the equivalent of a single frame in an animated short.
Changes will be evident even before students set foot on school grounds. Kids will be social-distanced “when possible” on buses, and will be required to wear masks and sanitize their hands as they board.
When children get to campus, they’ll see fewer classmates — though how many fewer is anyone’s guess at this point — because some families have indicated they will have their children study from home in the district’s expanded independent-study program, called Modesto Virtual Academy.
The curriculum, which covers transitional kindergarten through 12th grade, will be delivered through Schoology, the district’s online learning platform. but the curriculum is through Florida Virtual School, Associate Superintendent Brad Goudeau told the board. “The MVA program will utilize our own district credentialed teachers to help support and facilitate the academic progress of our students through Florida Virtual School,” he said.
Board member Chad Brown noted that parents were asked to tell the district by June 30 if they want to enroll their children in MVA and asked what the response has been. Superintendent Sara Noguchi replied that as of Monday morning, 566 families, with children across all grade levels, had expressed interest in staying with home study.
Goudeau noted that June 30 is not a deadline to choose MVA or traditional school, but rather a “benchmark date” to help the district evaluate what it needs to do in the way of staffing and creating master schedules.
Asked by The Bee after the meeting if there is a minimum number of students who would need to enroll in MVA in order to reduce campus populations to a safe number, Goudeau said, “... These are dynamic times. We are constantly evaluating our programs to identify how we can better serve our students. We will re-evaluate MVA at regular intervals throughout this school year.”
He also said, “At this time, we ask parents to consider their student’s enrollment in the MVA as a yearlong program commitment so that we can plan accordingly for both instructional models (traditional and MVA).”
Board Vice President Charlene West expressed concern that if students aren’t locked in to attending MVA or traditional on-campus learning, problems could arise. “I think if too many kids are going back and forth, that can be a logistical nightmare with staffing and curriculum,” she said.
In the classrooms
Classroom protocols will include desks being spaced for maximum distance among students and teachers, the board was told. And until the Stanislaus County health officer approves their participation, there will not be any parent or other outside volunteers permitted in rooms.
Additionally, all desks will face the same direction, whereas “typically, we would have desks configured for easy collaboration and students being next to each other to support that,” Goudeau said.
Trustee Amy Neumann said collaborative learning among students is valuable and asked if staff is working to identify ways that still can happen.
Goudeau replied that it’s an area the district is having to rethink and be creative about. “Students’ ability to converse and ‘pair share,’ as we call it is really important,” he said. It’s also crucial, he said, “that students are practicing their academic language and really thinking through their ideas. So, though I would imagine that those activities are still going to take place, it’s just going to be a pair share from three to six feet away. And how will that be different? I’ll probably be a little noisier in a classroom. But those are the activities that will definitely be ongoing.”
Also in classrooms, hand sanitizers will be available, as will tissues, and shared student devices will be cleaned regularly.
Arts, sports, PE and extracurricular activities
Choir, band and drama instruction will be modified to align with the safety recommendations of the county health officer, Goudeau told the board, and performances and competitions are suspended until county health deems that participation is safe.
Similarly, physical-education instruction will be offered, but with social distancing indoors and out. Roll call will be taken outside before students enter locker rooms to dress. Students will have to sanitize their hands before entering locker rooms, and showers will not be permitted until county health says they’re safe.
Students participating in sports have been allowed to begin workouts for conditioning and skills development, but no balls and other equipment may be used. Athletes must arrive at practices already dressed to participate, and a coach may work with no more than 25 students.
“In the coming weeks,” Goudeau said, “both the county health officer and the California Interscholastic Federation, or CIF, will be looking at making a determination of whether sports can be safely played this fall.”
He also told the board that as the year starts, all in-person extracurricular activities including assemblies, rallies and field trips are suspended until the county health officer says otherwise. “We just communicated with our principals about a week and a half ago about school calendars, and instead of saying we won’t do any rallies next year, or no field trips, we’ve said, hey, think about how you might do virtual rallies, how might you do virtual field trips. We do need to rethink and reimagine how we conduct school in any number of ways in this coming school year.”
West asked if students who take the Modesto Virtual Academy path will have opportunities to participate in virtual or in-person (when they’re permitted) extracurricular activities. Goudeau said MVA participants still are considered students at the schools they otherwise would have attended and will have the same opportunities to join in any extracurriculars offered in any form.
The Sylvan Union School District board was scheduled to hear its school-reopening presentation Tuesday night, and the Turlock Unified School District board is expected to have a special meeting in July to do the same.
This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 2:10 PM.
