Open carefully — Charles City students return to class under COVID precautions

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

After waiting for nearly six months, Charles City High School senior Ally Faulkner had to wait one extra day before she returned to school.

While students at Washington and Lincoln Elementary schools all began their school year Thursday, the high school welcomed just freshmen and sophomores on Thursday and just juniors and seniors on Friday morning.

“I won’t be able to see any freshmen or sophomores until at least October, so that will be weird,” Faulkner said. “It will be a different feeling, because we won’t see as many people as we see on a normal school day.”

The adjustment away from the typical school schedule is part of the Charles City School District’s “Return To Learn,” plan, which had to be conceived and constructed over the summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Charles City Superintendent Mike Fisher said the district has been working on the plan since March, when COVID shut down the 2019-20 school year.

He said that all the off-season worries and concerns did not take away from the annual thrill of the getting back to school.

“We’re just excited to see our kids,” Fisher said. “We’ve missed our family and missed that connection. Even though there’s still anxiety, the excitement of the first day of school is there.”

He said putting together the reopening plan was a “Herculean task,” with as many as 70 staff and community members working on it. Implementation of the plan began Thursday, when the first wave of 2020-21 students arrived at the doors.

“We feel as confident and as comfortable as possible,” Fisher said. “It’s not perfect. We know there are going to be many things coming up that we will have to adjust to, but we are confident that our plans are as good as we can create at this moment.”

The district’s hybrid plan includes both on-site and remote learning, and presents families with the option of 100% online learning if that’s what they’re comfortable with. About 15% of students are choosing that option to start the school year.

“We have kids who need to be in school, for their health and well-being,” Fisher said. “We want to keep those kids, and our staff and our community safe at the same time.”

According to the plan, students in preschool through 5th grade are attending school five days a week in person.

Students in grades 6-8 attend school in person on either Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday, with alternating Wednesday attendance. Students will participate in required remote learning the days not attending in person. Administration notified families as to which group students are in.

Students in grades 9-10 attend school on Monday and Thursday with alternating Wednesdays, and grade 11-12 students attend school on Tuesday and Friday with alternating Wednesdays. High school students will also participate in required remote learning the days not attending in person.

The district is also creating a “study site” for students who need instruction outside of the days they are able to attend classes. Students will also have the option to take home lunches for the days they are not on campus.

The district hopes that it will be possible to go back to 100% on-site learning, with precautions, by early October.

“I’m always excited to be working with kids again, every year, because that’s my passion as a teacher,” said CCHS social studies teacher Rob Pittman. “That passion is tempered with making sure that we’re being safe enough.”

Pittman said he and other teachers were thinking about whether they have all the things in place to keep rooms sanitary, and making sure things are arranged in a way to “make things as safe as we can with what we have.”

“We’re organizing our classes, in person and online, in such a way where we’re making sure that all the students are keeping pace and have material at home that is stimulating and interesting,” Pittman said. “We need to make sure kids are safe, and kids are learning. We have to make sure everything is accessible and can be done at home, and that we’re available.”

Pittman said that one of the most important things will be for students, teachers, parents and the community to be flexible.

“It’s not going to be the most perfect thing,” Pittman said. “It won’t be ideal, but we will keep working on it and we will do the best we can.”

A multitude of health and safety structural precautions have been taken. Face coverings will be required for all staff, and students will be required to wear face coverings any time they are in common areas or aren’t able to social distance. They will be required in hallways, office areas, the cafeteria when not eating, buses, classrooms when not socially distanced, and when in the crowd during indoor sporting events.

Fisher said that students can choose their own face coverings, which could be a mask, shield, cloth or gator. They can personalize, as long as the mask isn’t vulgar or inappropriate.

Faulkner, the senior student, works at the hospital in Mason City, so she said she is used to wearing a mask all day long, but she said she isn’t sure her fellow students will take it as seriously.

“The teachers will try to implement it, but you never know,” she said. “For most kids, it’s not going to be an easy thing. They might feel like it’s constricting, and some students don’t want to be told what to do.”

There will be opportunities for students to take their face coverings off throughout the day. Generally, students will not be required to wear face coverings in classrooms as they will be in their smaller family learning teams where they will be socially distanced.

Faulkner is on the FFA Leadership team and plays tennis — although COVID caused her season to be canceled last spring. Along with her job at the hospital, she also works at the Pub on the Cedar. She is taking college prep classes this year and said she wants to eventually become a registered nurse.

She said she is excited to be back in the classroom, because she hasn’t been to school since March, but added that she will be sad and disappointed if things like homecoming and football, volleyball or other events have to be canceled.

Pittman said that he and other teachers are doing all they can to try to keep the spread of COVID to a minimum, so that things like that don’t have to be canceled — or something worse happens.

“I don’t want to do something stupid and get a kid infected, or get myself infected,” Pittman said. “I have to make sure I’m doing this smart, so I’m keeping everyone safe.”

Pittman said he feels fortunate to be teaching in Charles City, rather than in a metropolitan area where the virus is less manageable.

“The biggest groups of people meeting together in Floyd County is in the schools,” Pittman said. “That’s why we have to make sure we’re wired tight, and good and smart with how we handle this.”

Fisher said that he communicates daily with public health officials regarding COVID-19 numbers, and the district has held drills and practices and worked on communication protocols for positive cases.

“Everything we do is driven by two questions — is it wise, and is it reasonable,” Fisher said. “We feel prepared, and we will do our best to roll with the punches. We just ask for a lot of grace and a lot of flexibility.”