Baby steps. Turlock Unified resumes in-person with just TK and kindergarten students
Turlock Unified, the largest district in Stanislaus County so far to begin reopening TK-6 in-person instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic under a waiver from the state, welcomed transitional kindergartners and kindergartners to school campuses Monday morning.
The district has about 540 of the little ones, spread over nine elementary schools. Those whose families chose to send them back to school showed up bundled up in jackets, hats, gloves and, of course, face coverings. As the 8 a.m. hour approached and the kids lined up, socially distanced, for the gates to open, the temperature was about 50 degrees.
Children are returning on what’s called a blended learning model, which means they’ll be in class two days, distance learning one day, and then two days of independent learning, district spokeswoman Marie Russell said at Julien on Monday.
Student populations are split in two, with Group A on campuses Mondays and Tuesdays and doing independent study at home on Thursdays and Fridays. Group B does the opposite, and both groups get teacher-led distance learning on Wednesdays.
The phased-in reopening has grades one through three set to return Nov. 9 and grades four through six on Nov. 30.
Blended learning is one of three options available to TUSD families. Another is called the hybrid model, in which children learn from home, checking in with their teachers daily “and then they meet with a teacher once a week to kind of go over assignments,” Russell said. Finally, at the request of families who don’t feel safe returning their children to campuses during the pandemic, full distance learning is continuing.
The district’s Safe Schools Reopening Plan: Elementary Education is at bit.ly/2HzVasM.
Looking further than TK-6 reopening, district Superintendent Dana Salles Trevethan said in an email to The Bee on Monday, “We have a goal in TUSD of returning secondary students in some capacity beginning in November while adhering to all health and safety protocols including social distancing, face coverings, hygiene measures, etc.. We have already begun returning some students in small learning groups at the elementary level and plan to continue this practice for secondary as well.”
The district knows the importance of bringing back middle school and high school students, Russell said. “We just want to make sure we do it right and that we can bring kids back and keep them safe and healthy during a really difficult time with cold and flu season starting.”
Turlock Unified is looking at a lot of options for when and how to bring back the secondary students, recognizing that “a lot of disruption right here at the end of the grading period can be can be challenging,” she said.
Keeping children in small, stable learning cohorts for instruction, lunch and recess is an important tool to combat spread on elementary campuses, but likely won’t be feasible at the high school level, where students move from classroom to classroom during the day.
“If you know that you’re going to be putting your eggs in the basket of social distancing and masking (at high schools), then you’ve got to try to reduce the numbers on campus,” she said. With all students back on a campus like Turlock High, with 2,100 students, hallways may be impacted and lunchtime may be unmanageable, Russell said.
“Irrespective of the model we choose for secondary, there will have to be some kind of reduction in the number of students on campus,” she said. Whether that’s some combination of in-person and at-home learning, and whether those would be happening simultaneously, “we’re still in conversations about,” Russell said.
This story was originally published October 26, 2020 at 2:27 PM.
