GREENFIELD — Fostering student safety and success is a delicate balance for schools in the age of COVID-19.
To pursue that balance, educators at Greenfield-Central High School will be enacting a new schedule on Nov. 2, which is two weeks after classes resume at the end of the current fall break.
The two-week delay will enable the school to keep students somewhat separated after the break, when many will likely be traveling, making any potential positive COVID-19 cases easier to track.
The school switched to a hybrid schedule shortly after classes started July 31, which allowed half the student body to attend school in-person and online on alternating days.
The new schedule will have all students at school every day but Wednesday, when students will meet with all teachers virtually.
Educators say the latest change will help support students academically in a constantly evolving response to COVID-19.
“We have heard from our parents and students that they want the kids back in the building more than we have them on our current hybrid schedule,” Principal Jason Cary said.
“As we talked to our teachers, we thought we could find a better balance of health and safety and academics. We think this new modified block schedule is better for students academically while still maintaining a safe environment,” he said.
Cary said the latest changes reflect the state’s progress toward reopening since statewide restrictions were put into place in March.
Superintendent Harold Olin said the change is intended to support students who have struggled academically due to the challenges of virtual learning.
When it comes to learning in the age of COVID-19, “you want (students) to be safe, but you want them to be safe and successful,” said Olin.
While students have remained COVID-free for the past six weeks, “our failure rate has increased a little bit when you look at where we were one year ago in 2019,” he said. “Not just those students in remedial classes but in (advanced placement) classes, which shows our high school students are struggling in this (hybrid) environment. If we can get kids to campus more regularly, we can have more academic success.”
The new schedule would not have been adopted if it weren’t for the fact the number of coronavirus cases have dropped in Greenfield-Central schools and throughout Hancock County, he said.
“Obviously we’ve been watching the metrics, and to have no cases among students in the past six weeks and no cases among staff for the last five weeks was a factor, along with the county’s positive rate being under 4%. So it felt like getting kids back on site more often was the right thing for us to do,” the superintendent said.
While bringing the whole student body back together will mean students are no longer easily able to socially distance in class or in the halls, Olin said the use of face masks will still be enforced.
If a student or faculty member does test positive for coronavirus, the newly adopted schedule will make tracking easier than the school’s routine, pre-COVID schedule.
While students typically alternate between “blue” days and “gold” days, the new alignment will follow the “blue” schedule on Mondays and Tuesdays; followed by meeting with all teachers virtually on Wednesdays; and attending “gold” day classes on Thursdays and Fridays.
Parents were notified of the change in an email on Friday evening, Oct. 2.
“Since last spring, we have continued to evaluate our schedule to make sure we are balancing our students’ academic needs, their social-emotional health, and their overall health and safety,” the email began. “While we feel the transition to a hybrid schedule back in August was the right move at the time, we know the landscape has changed in our community in recent weeks.”
Olin said the change was also supported by an online survey that garnered responses from 800 students, 700 parents and all 80 faculty members.
The responses showed that students were struggling not just with academics but with their social and emotional health as well.
Olin said the new schedule will offer several benefits, including: easier-to-follow consistency; more face-to-face instruction and support; and less time working on their own from home.
The new schedule will also cut contact tracing in half from a traditional schedule if a positive COVID case does arise, which means fewer students would be quarantined.
Students signed up for all virtual learning will follow the newly adapted schedule online.
“Due to the nature of the schedules, we aren’t able to transfer students between (online and onsite) setups until the second semester. We plan to open the window for families to make these changes with their counselor in October. This gives us enough time to modify our master schedules for the second semester and balance classes,” according to the email to parents.
“The goal is to stay on this schedule until we can transition to a normal block schedule after the pandemic is over,” the email continued. “If we have to consider a schedule change due to health and safety concerns (either locally or statewide) later in the year, we will look at our options.”
