LPOSD explores options for reopening school this fall

SANDPOINT — A long-awaited publication from Idaho State Board of Education on recommendations regarding in-person learning for K-12 students this fall was released Thursday.

The 46-page document was both comprehensive and flexible, leaving decisions such as mask mandates and social distance classroom models to local leadership, in response to the relentless COVID-19 pandemic.

Lake Pend Oreille School District Superintendent Tom Albertson was pleased with the framework, which he said was a step in the right direction for schools pursuing a full school opening model. With 60 days until the start of the school year LPOSD, like many other districts, has chosen to build a fluid reentry plan. Or, in Albertson’s case, three contingency plans.

“The biggest challenge is the unknown of where we are going to be in our community by Sept. 8,” Albertson said. Albertson’s three plans are based on the three categories defined by ISBE — no transmission, mild to moderate transmission and substantial transmission of COVID-19 in the community.

ISBE defines no transmission in the community as “evidence of only isolated cases with no evidence of cases in a large communal setting,” such as healthcare facilities or schools. Under category one, the framework recommends keeping school fully open with social distance protocol and sanitization methods in place.

In this category, Albertson said he’d likely be comfortable with continuing field trips and students congregating in open spaces like gymnasiums and cafeterias. “But, it just depends on if we are in that category,” he said. “My question right now is are we as a community in category one or category two? I would say with the amount of testing we have we are probably in category two, with minimal to moderate community transmission … I don’t know, just trying to interpret those guidelines.”

Category two proposes a blended learning model. In this instance, local leadership may consider targeting remote learning. This would prioritize in-person learning for certain students and remote learning for others, such as preschool and kindergarten students or students with special needs. Other options considered at this level of transmission would include short-term closure of one to four weeks or a mid-term closure of four to six weeks.

The last category, substantial transmission in the community, would require 100 percent remote learning or extended building closure beyond six weeks to account for multiple cases in the community.

All of Idaho’s Region I superintendents have been meeting weekly with Panhandle Health District officials. Albertson hopes to finalize a plan or plans for each of his schools in the district by the first week of August in regards to more specific criteria.

Albertson said Panhandle Health District’s current plan is to promote cohorting students by designing pathways to limit person-to-person contact throughout the school building.

“There wouldn’t be as many large assemblies and we’d have to structure recess,” Albertson said. “(We’ll) just try to minimize the amount of contact the student has with other students … If a student were to test positive you may not have to shut a whole school down, you may just have to go to distance learning for one class.”

On Monday night at LPOSD’s regular school board meeting, Albertson will share results of a survey conducted late June to understand parent’s comfort levels for in-person learning in the fall as it relates to COVID-19. Albertson said he will conduct another survey about reentry at the end of July to continually collect data involving parents and allow them to be a part of the decision making process. His last survey received over 700 responses, which represents he estimated represents 25 percent of the student population for LPOSD.

Near and far, education systems across the world have been eager to reinstate a physical space for teachers to help educate students. Gov. Brad Little endorsement this framework Thursday, calling in-person learning the “foundation of our student’s success.”

“We must prioritize the opening of school buildings for in-person instruction and prepare schools to offer different kinds of learning in order to deliver a seamless learning continuum for all Idaho students,” Little said.

The next meeting for Region I superintendents is on July 16, where the district will solicit advice from PHD on specific health criteria. Conversation topics will range anywhere from the metric distance between desks to the daily questionnaire for students on recording COVID-19 related symptoms.

ISBE’s framework may not have had all the answers, but it’s a start, Albertson said.

“Of course we would like to get more, but it’s where we are and it’s a good starting point for us,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of people working through the month of July on this and I am confident in those people working on this plan to provide the best education for our students, and also the safest environment for our staff and students.”