Edmonds School District leaders Tuesday continued their ongoing discussion regarding how the district intends to reopen schools for in-person teaching in the fall amid concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.

The district recently adopted a hybrid model of learning that will place students in two (or potentially three or four) separate groups that split their time between the classroom and learning remotely. Under the model, Group A students will attend school in person Mondays and Tuesdays and then do remote learning Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Students in Group B will do remote learning Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays and then attend school in person on Thursdays and Fridays.

Though the district intends to roll out the hybrid model come September, Superintendent Gustavo Balderas said during a school board study session July 14 that staff is preparing for the possibility that a spike in COVID-positive cases results in school closures. The district has been building on the continuous learning practices provided by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) used in the spring after the state-mandated school closures.

“We’re planning for distance learning,” he said. “I know that’s a concern that’s being expressed to us.”

At the July 14 study session, the Edmonds School Board and Balderas invited district staff tasked with coming up with recommendations to provide an update on current planning for the 2020-21 school year and allow board members to ask questions or present ideas. Staff attending the meeting represented some of the 22 work groups that have been meeting regularly to give input to three planning teams focused on operations, student learning and advisory. Once the groups — made up of more than 200 faculty, staff, administrators and parents — have identified their recommendations, those will be passed along to the district’s professional excellence committee (PEC) for consideration.

Executive Director of Student Learning Rob Baumgartner began his presentation by highlighting the three primary areas staff have been working on: an instructional program for the hybrid model, a continuous learning 2.0 plan and remote learning options for students who aren’t ready to return to in-person teaching.

“The purpose of this work has been to get the fine details of what our reopening plan will be,” he said. “The work is really to create new and more effective approaches in terms of curriculum and instruction and assessment.”

Baumgartner also said that students who decide they want to switch from remote learning to the hybrid model will be able to do so.

“We are anticipating that people will change their mind as they get more information and as their own home situations change,” he said. “There would be the ability to transition from online to hybrid (learning) and vice versa.” 

However, Baumgartner said the district cannot guarantee that students who opt for remote learning will be assigned a teacher from the school they regularly attend. He added that as of now, the district does not have the data to know which students will be returning to the classrooms in the fall and which students won’t.

Director Gary Noble asked if eLearning will still be available under the new model for secondary students and if so, how it would be different than the eLearning offered during a regular school year. Baumgartner said eLearning would be available for students but added that staff are still discussing if eLearning in a remote learning model was an appropriate option.

“It’s definitely one of the things we’re taking a look at as the option for our secondary students that want the 100% remote learning option,” he said.

Next, Elementary Education Director JoAnn Todd updated the board on the learning management systems (LMS) the district has selected to facilitate and track remote learning for students. For pre-K through second-grade students, the staff chose Seesaw, and Canvas was selected for third-through-sixth-grade students. Both programs were chosen for being user friendly, having “robust” translation systems and allowing for easy monitoring of students’ work, she said.

Todd also explained what a day in an elementary school classroom would look like under the new model, saying that in-person learning days would be like a regular school day.

“There will be more hand-washing opportunities, but content wise it’ll be relatively the same,” she said.

During the days for remote learning, Todd said students will watch pre-recorded lessons and online platforms to reinforce classroom learning. Some pre-recorded lessons will be available for students with time limits independent from their classmates to provide flexibility during independent learning. Meanwhile, lessons taught to students at the same time will be prioritized for small group instruction and individualized feedback.

“This allows us to differentiate (and) to be able to meet kids where they are and help move them forward” she said. “We also want to maximize the engagement time for students to talk and collaborate with one another in academic areas when we have the opportunity to have them together, whether it be a small group or whole group.”

In the event that the district has to resort to remote learning, Todd said pre-recorded lessons will also be used to teach students.

Regarding the learning management systems programs, Director Nancy Katims asked if there was a way for parents with students in different grades to access both LMS accounts without having to log in to each using separate usernames and passwords. If not, she suggested that staff find a way for that to occur.

In response, Todd said the groups have discussed including instructional videos to aid families with logging in or creating a landing page where families can access whatever they need in one spot.

“Our goal would be to make it as user friendly as possible and not have to have a ton of clicks,” she said.

Instead of spending all of their remote-learning time doing online work, Katims said she would also like to see students have ongoing projects they worked on using what they learned in the classroom. According to Todd, work groups have discussed project-based learning and are considering options like journaling and writing projects

Director Ann McMurray brought up the topic of scheduling and asked how the district plans to accommodate student learning and families’ work schedules that rely on child care.

“Say you’re at a professional day care, are you supposed to send your laptop with the child to day care so the daycare then ends up providing the adult supervision for learning?” she asked. “Or does a parent who’s working during the day need to expect that at the end of the day when they come home that becomes the time where they’re assisting students?” 

Todd said the district is discussing plans to work with its contracted before- and after-school child care provider, Right at School. Additionally, Assistant Superintendent Helen Joung said once they find out the number of families who need child care, they plan to reach out to other local providers — like the Mountlake Terrace Recreation Center and Boys and Girls Clubs — to see if they have the capacity to accommodate the number of students in need and how much it would cost.

“The last thing that we do want is to burden our families,” she said.

Also during the meeting, the board heard from Director of Secondary Education and the Highly Capable Program Kim Hunter on work being done at the secondary grade level to provide a structured schedule for students and educators. She said the key is to establish a routine and structured schedule as early as possible.

When assessing students’ work, Hunter said they are hoping to provide teachers with the support to provide consistent and diverse methods.

“We want teachers thinking about the creative ways students can show what they’ve learned and create as many different flexibilities there as well,” she said.

Another key issue the district is facing is ensuring that the social-emotional needs of both students and educators are being met. Director of School Psychology Jo Callaghan said the district intends to conduct universal screenings for students, families and staff regarding their emotional readiness to learn.

“If you are in a state of worry and anxiety and fear — and all of those things that are happening in our world right now because of the (corona)virus — we have to find ways to make sure you have skills to calm down,” she said.

The district will continue to hold study sessions focused on reopening schools until its next school board meeting in August. The next study session is scheduled for July 21 at 2 p.m.

–By Cody Sexton