SPOKANE, Wash. — As coronavirus restrictions are slowly lifted, administrators with Spokane Public Schools are discussing whether to reopen schools for in-person classes in the fall.
Leaders said classrooms will only open if Spokane passes through all the phases of Gov. Inslee’s reopening plan.
“There’s still a lot of details that we need to work through,” said Adam Swinyard, SPS associate superintendent.
He said administrators are deciding between three possible ways to determine how students will get their education.
The first option would fully reopen schools, and require teachers and students to wear face masks. Staff would also sanitize rooms between classes.
“We’re looking at safety practices, school facilities, how many desks we should put in a room, social distancing, those kinds of things,” said Mark Anderson, another SPS associate superintendent.
The second option would continue distance learning, where students would take online classes and learn at home.
The third option would be a hybrid scenario, allowing students to take some of their classes at home and others at school.
“We would potentially have students coming in on an A/B schedule. Half comes one day, and half coming in the other,” Swinyard said. “We could also potentially have half the students coming in the a.m. and half coming in the p.m.”
But the third option would raise concerns about the budget. Buses would have more routes and could make multiple trips through some neighborhoods in a day.
“We’d also have to see about the logistics of making sure students are on the same schedule,” Swinyard said.
The district is creating a task force of teachers and safety workers who will consider all this information to help make a decision.
“We’ll need to take lots of feedback from parents, teachers and staff and their kids about what their experience has been like this spring,” Swinyard said. “We’ll make some adjustments if we have to.”
He said they’re expecting to have a decision by Aug. 1 to allow parents and students time to prepare for the start of school in September.
“You’re only a 4th-grader once. You’re only a Junior once,” he said. “We want to do everything we can to provide a great start to the year.”
