After learning that Liberty and Meade Park elementary schools could only hold limited capacities due to open-space classrooms, Danville District 118 officials have drastically altered their reopening plan.
School board members unanimously approved Superintendent Alicia Geddis’ plan to have only remote learning for students in fifth grade through high school and a half-day schedule for elementary school students.
Middle school and high school students will attend half of their regularly scheduled classes on Mondays and Wednesdays and the other half on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Fridays, students will be taught one half of the classes, with the other half on the following Friday.
Students in kindergarten through fourth grade will attend a half-day of in-person classes, with the remainder of the day spent working on online homework assignments as part of the hybrid curriculum.
Third and fourth grade students who normally would attend Liberty or Meade Park elementary schools will instead attend in-person classes at South View Upper Elementary School. Geddis said she only learned of open-space classroom restrictions two weeks ago, and there aren’t enough enclosed rooms to hold students.
“There are three places like the cafeteria and the gymnasium, but remember that you still have to have an isolation room outside of the nurse’s office,” she explained. “So that leaves us with four to five physical spaces for those buildings.”
Preschool students at both Edison and Southwest elementary schools will attend either a morning or afternoon session, with their classes being limited to five students at a time. Geddis said she understands concerns from parents about the two programs being the same, but state guidelines require them to be that way.
“They must follow the same program with the district,” she said. “I understand (some) families and households are two different things. I understand. But we are bound by certain things, and that’s one of them.”
Special education preschool classes will still be held in-person.
While every school board members voted to approve the new proposal, each member expressed concerns for the learning environment. Dr. Randal Ashton asked about a mitigation plan if a staff member were to test positive, and Pastor Thomas Miller said students aren’t immune to negative effects of the virus.
“We’re hearing that even children are dying from this COVID,” Miller explained. “It’s not like there’s no way that they could not contract and possibly lose their lives.”
But board president Bill Dobbles says while the plan isn’t ideal, it is a good compromise.
“It’s not a perfect solution, but everyone really appreciates the compromise and work that was put in, and hopefully it will work out right,” he said.
District 118 staff members will have their first day on Monday, August 31, with the first day of school for students being Tuesday, September 8.
The full reopening plan can be found here.
