Olympia parents raise concerns over schools reopening in the fall

Olympia School District parents and teachers have plenty of questions about how middle and high schools will function this fall. On Thursday evening, they got the chance to ask some of them at the second of five planned virtual town hall meetings.

While specific plans are still in progress, district leadership offered a peek at how classes might operate in the ongoing pandemic.

Questions for OSD Superintendent Patrick Murphy and district directors ranged from what classes would be available to how students would meet, whether that would be partially in-person or completely online, and what the district plans to do to make sure students, staff and teachers avoid contracting COVID-19.

Murphy said OSD is aiming to implement a hybrid model in which the student body from each school would be split into two groups. Those groups would each physically attend school two days week on alternating days, with one day of the five-day week dedicated to online learning for all.

Classroom capacity would be reduced to accommodate social distancing, according to the district, with desks spaced apart and the teacher at the front of the class.

The district also polled attendees at the meeting to gauge feelings about a block format, where students would stay in the same room throughout the day and teachers would move room-to-room between periods. The hope under that model would be to minimize movement and spread of the virus if a student were carrying it.

Murphy said during the meeting that the district is still trying figure out what the proper course of action is if a student, teacher or staff member at the school tests positive for COVID-19.

Parents also wondered if schools would go completely online for the fall given the recent rise in COVID-19 cases.

Murphy said the district is working with and listening to local and state health officials, waiting for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the CDC to put out new guidelines, and monitoring the situation closely.

However, the decision to close schools will ultimately be up to Gov. Jay Inslee, Murphy said.

If school does go completely online in the fall, parents wanted to know how the district will improve the quality of education from what students received in the spring. The district is working on training teachers and offering training to parents to improve the online education experience, Murphy said.

Many other questions were asked during the meeting, some of which OSD could not immediately answer. However, the OSD website has set up an Frequently Asked Questions page which it plans to update as questions continue to be emailed in. The page can be found in the website’s Fall Reopening Plans drop-down menu. OSD also has shared a recording of the entire meeting.

Three more OSD town hall meetings are scheduled, at 1 p.m. July 21, 22 and 23. The district hopes to have its final plan completed by Aug. 4.

This story was originally published July 17, 2020 at 1:06 PM.