SCHOOL NEWS

'Like the first day' as many students return to classrooms

By DANIEL A. KITTREDGE
Posted 3/10/21

By DANIEL KITTREDGE For the first time in a year, Cranston's elementary and middle schools have welcomed all students back for five-day in-person instruction. The School Committee last week approved Superintendent Jeannine Nota-Masse's plan to reopen

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SCHOOL NEWS

'Like the first day' as many students return to classrooms

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For the first time in a year, Cranston’s elementary and middle schools have welcomed all students back for five-day in-person instruction.

The School Committee last week approved Superintendent Jeannine Nota-Masse’s plan to reopen classrooms to students in grades two through eight on a full-time basis. The new reopening took effect Monday, while a full distance learning option remains available for students in the grades in question.

“I think it is time to do this,” the superintendent said prior to the committee’s vote during a special meeting March 3.

During a public work session Monday night, Assistant Superintendent Norma Cole said the return of grades two through eight had gone “really smoothly.”

“It was like the first day of school,” she said.

Cole and Nota-Masse did express some concern over low in-person attendance rates at the middle school level.

Overall, figures provided by the district show 65 percent of the district’s elementary and middle school students – 4,417 out of 6,843 – had returned to classrooms Monday.

But at Hugh B. Bain Middle School, 227 of 626 students (36 percent) attended in person. At Park View Middle School, the rate was 40 percent, with 291 of 725 students physically in school. Western Hills Middle School saw 400 of 734 students (54 percent) in attendance, while Hope Highlands Middle School has 259 of 359 students (72 percent) in classrooms.

The district’s elementary schools ranged from 63 percent attendance (Dutemple) to 89 percent (Oak Lawn).

Cole said the Bain and Park View numbers in particular were lower than officials had hoped. But she said the district expects in-person numbers to rise, since Monday was the first day of the reopening and some families may be taking a wait-and-see approach before sending their children back.

“I’m not that surprised that the middle school was a little more reluctant,” she said, adding that the district will continue to encourage families to return their children to in-person instruction.

Nota-Masse also said transportation “went fairly well” on Monday. She and other district officials had been concerned about getting children to school, given the COVID-19 safety protocols that remain in place for buses. The superintendent said parents “are being great” in terms of making arrangements to transport children to school.

“We’re happy to have kids back in school,” she said. “It’s a good thing to see.”

Up until Monday, students in grades two through eight had been operating under the district’s “hybrid” approach to school reopening – distance learning for all students on Mondays, with the rest of the week split between virtual and in-person instruction based on alphabetical groupings.

With the shift, however, families will need to choose between full distance learning or full in-person instruction.

“We can’t have three different cohorts of students coming in and out of a classroom,” Nota-Masse said last week.

Cole noted last week that there is flexibility in terms of when individual students return, and that families can wait until after vacation, for example, if they are more comfortable with that approach.

Students in pre-K through grade one have already been back in classrooms, along with key subgroups such as special needs students and language learners.

Nota-Masse said the state’s improving COVID-19 picture, and the fact that elementary and middle school students spend their day within stable “pods,” made the next step in the reopening process possible. The move will require the district to space students closer than 6 feet in some classrooms, although the superintendent has said spacing will be kept at that distance as much as possible.

High school students at this point remain in the hybrid system, due to the fact that their instruction does not allow for them to remain in stable pods.

Several educators and community members addressed the committee during last week’s meeting, with some cheering the grade two through eight reopening and others urging a more cautious approach.

Caryn Fantasia, a 15-year educator in the city’s schools, acknowledged the necessity of returning children to classrooms.

“I have seen firsthand what this last calendar year has done to our kids,” she said.

Fantasia suggested, however, that the latest step in the reopening be “delayed just a little,” until the Monday following April vacation. That, she said, would allow time for educators to be vaccinated and for warmer temperatures to arrive, which would in turn enable more outdoor activities.

“I fear that could put ourselves into a position where we rush into this,” she said.

Sandy Derevyanko, the parent of an Oak Lawn Elementary student, told the committee: “I don’t feel that the data really supports this plan … I certainly feel like we’re sort of rushing it, and I’m not really understanding the rationale.”

Several parents who spoke during a previous meeting in support of the reopening plan also addressed the committee March 3.

“Sending [students] back is about the safety of our kids … This is much bigger than just being tired about COVID,” Ed Daley said. He also said it is “disheartening to hear the consistent levels of fear that are unfounded.”

Liz Larkin, president of the Cranston Teachers’ Alliance, spoke about the experience of the last year and how teachers and school staff have met the challenges posed by the pandemic. The topic of reopening, she said, has become “very politically charged,” and the district’s leadership is “being tugged in many different directions right now.”

“You just can never make any one person pleased at any given minute on any given day,” she said.

While “many of us feel that it is a little too soon or too fast,” Larkin said, the union also acknowledges that the district “cannot have four or five different scenarios” in play at one time. Teachers are already facing the strain of simultaneously teaching students remotely and in-person, she said, and layering on an additional option like the hybrid model would creates new challenges and safety concerns.

Larkin said during the crisis, the approach of Nota-Masse and the district’s administration has been “always conservative and the ultimate safety was always the consideration.”

“The superintendent continues to have the utmost concern about safety and wellness for all,” she said, asking the committee that Nota-Masse “be given the flexibility to adjust this rapid change if it becomes not conducive to either safety or teaching and learning.”

Committee members expressed their support for the plan prior to last week’s vote.

“The benefit to our community to continuing a hybrid approach … must be balanced against the cost to our children,” Ward 1 representative Sara Tindall-Woodman said.

She did urge the district to take a fresh look at its approach to communicating with families, however, suggesting it has at points happened “too abruptly” and generated some “mistrust.”

Ward 3 representative Domenic Fusco said had received “quite a bit of feedback on this resolution on both sides.”

“There are concerns, but for the most part, they’re ready to have their kids come back,” he said.

He added: “I want the kids back. I know there’s risks, but I know it’s being done safely.”

“I don’t think we can say we’re rushing into this. If anything, we’ve been extremely cautious,” citywide representative Michael Traficante said. “I would not support something that’s going to go to school vacation … We’ve got to get these kids back in school. It’s critical.”

Ward 4 representative Vincent Turchetta said: “I have 100 percent faith in our superintendent and her administrators … I know there’s concerns out there, but I believe that it’s time.”

Ward 5 representative David Alden-Sears called Nota-Masse a “rock star,” and said he, too, had heard support for the reopening from community members.

“People widely support returning to school as soon as possible,” he said.

He added: “No decision we make on the School Committee is made lightly … [we will] not be bullied one way or the other to make decisions.”

Ward 6 representative Dan Wall, the committee’s chairman, said he, too, believed it was the “right time” to proceed with the next step in the school reopening.

Elsewhere during Monday’s meeting, Nota-Masse said discussions have begun in terms of how the district will approach graduations and proms this year.

On the graduation front, she said, the district has started initial planning for outdoor events at Cranston Stadium or Cranston High School West’s new athletic complex.

“It seems to be going in the direction of outdoor venues and outdoor ceremonies being acceptable,” she said.

Nota-Masse said she was set to meet this week with the city’s new parks and recreation director to discuss the matter further. She was quick to note, however, that the situation remains fluid and that no formal approvals have come yet from the state level.

“We do not have a green light from the Department of Health on any of these great ideas,” she cautioned, but officials “have to start planning now.”

She added: “I’d really, really like a normal ceremony for the kids that are graduating … Kids and families have been through a lot, and this is the culminating event of 13 years of school.”

Regarding proms, Nota-Masse said she has been in contact with City Council members Ed Brady and Nicole Renzulli – who are spearheading an “Uplift” initiative to support senior proms – and representatives of the events industry to gauge where the state is moving.

“We’re remaining cautiously optimistic with that as well … We’re working on that. It’s on the radar. We’re really trying to do something for kids,” she said.

schools, reopening

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