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Date: 8/10/2020
HUNTINGTON – Following a phone call with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley and the state's superintendents last week, Gateway Regional Superintendent David B. Hopson said it is likely all of the schools in the state will be using the first 10 days of school for training staff.
"Realistically, all the superintendents were on a phone call with the commissioner, and he told us he is strongly suggesting even mandating that we use those ten days," Hopson said.
Hopson said the state has been working with the Massachusetts Teachers Association on the plan to go back to school, and has very valid reasons for the need for training.
"It's a good option, to get people thinking about how we will return," he said.
Some of the considerations under review include the need for social distancing. While Gateway does have adequate classroom space, it depends on what measure of social distancing youÕre using. Hopson said the Center for Disease Control is still recommending six feet, but DESE has said three feet between desks. He said Gateway does have enough room to fit all of the district's students at a distance of three feet.
More of a concern for the regional district, which stretches from Middlefield to Blandford to Montgomery, is transportation. "I don't have enough buses or enough money to get our kids in school. We would have to use three tiers. They'd be spending all their days in school on the bus," Hopson said, adding that it would take four or five hours just to get the middle and high school students into school, and then turn around for elementary students.
Hopson said even if he could get them to school and space them at three feet, the district has barely enough staff to cover that, adding that if he had two or three teachers out, he would have a problem.
"The short response is we can't come back in with COVID-19 being active, and have every student in school," Hopson said, adding, "There's no easy answers in these small rural districts."
At this point, Gateway is looking at a modified hybrid model; modified in terms of the potential for bringing back different groups of students on a scheduled basis.
"We will start with smaller groups of students coming back, and build that number up as we can safely bring them back," Hopson said. They will also follow state guidance and first bring back students with higher needs or those who have had trouble with distance learning.
Internet access is not as much of a consideration as a student's ability to function adequately online. Gateway has identified over 50 students with significant issues of internet access; however, the district will be providing these homes with a managed hotspot specifically for use on the chromebooks they will receive. Hopson called it "not inexpensive," but said a state grant will pick up a good portion of the cost.
Hopson said while the state has essentially mandated the plans for the return to school, half of the school committee is serving in working groups on the district's local return to school plan, along with staff and other town officials.
"I think working with our staff and the three working groups we feel pretty confident this is a way to bring students back safely, and get into the swing of things," Hopson said, adding, "I'm pleased that our staff seems to be collaborative and working towards what's in the best interests of both staff and students. Kudos to the town officials who are sitting on these working groups to get us back in school."
As to the response from parents and families, Hopson said it's split. "I think there's two sides to that coin; some parents want to come back with no masks and no social distancing. Some parents don't want students to come back until a proven vaccine is widely available," he said.
The district will offer full remote learning for the entire year, if parents don't want their students to come back.
Hopson also said the implementation of the next phase will depend on a declining number of cases of COVID-19, and nobody knows if and when that's going to happen.
The 2020-21 school year is Hopson's 18th year as superintendent of the Gateway Regional School District, and it will also be his last as he plans to retire in 2021. When asked how he feels about ending his career during a crisis, he called it "par for the course," referring to his first year in 2003, when the state cut $2.3 million from the budget.
"Bookends in my career; a financial crisis on the one end, and a health crisis on the other," Hopson said.