Henrico Schools officials discuss options for summer school, next 2 school years

As they prepare for the conclusion of a school year unlike any other – and the beginning of a unique summer school period, too – Henrico Schools officials continue to discuss options for the next two school years.

Five working groups of school system officials are weighing five possible options for the start of the 2020-21 school year, planned for Sept. 8. They include:

• a full-time return to on-campus learning;
• a structured and enhanced virtual learning process;
• “interrupted” on-campus learning, whereby students would attend school in person but may have periods of virtual learning;
• a hybrid model, through which half the students would attend school in person while the other half worked virtually from home, and then the two groups would switch;
• a parallel model, through which students could attend school in person or work virtually from home if they preferred.

Although officials want input about the options from teachers and families, Superintendent Amy Cashwell and Chief of Staff Beth Teigen told School Board members during their virtual work session Thursday that it’s too soon to ask for those opinions. Instead, they want to wait to see how the state’s reopening process goes, and they’re also awaiting guidance about the new school year from the Virginia Department of Education, which is expected to provide it soon.

Some teachers already have reached out to express concern about returning to the classroom, either because of existing health conditions or general concern, Cashwell said, and officials are tracking those concerns.

If virtual learning is part of the coming school year in any way, Cashwell said it will look much different from what is currently in place.

“A significant difference would be while the activities are flexible in the time that they can be accessed and completed right now, there would be much less flexibility [in the coming school year],” Cashwell said. “Your teacher would have specific times that you’d be expected to log on and be part of the whole group that would mirror what’s expected of the school day.”

Virtual coursework in the new school year also would be graded, Cashwell said; in most cases, it is not being graded now.

Varina District School Board member Alicia Atkins asked Teigen to ensure that teachers are being trained in how to best conduct classes online, since many have never experienced it before. The school system has been offering a plethora of training opportunities, Teigen said, and a number of teachers have participated in them.

Officials have tentatively eyeballed early August as a possible timeframe during which to poll parents about their desires for the coming school year, Teigen said, though that could change.

“School reopening in the fall weighs heavy on my heart every day,” Tuckahoe District School Board member Marcie Shea said. “And we know that there’s no easy answers, and whatever comes in the fall is going to be challenging.”

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Summer school options abound
In the meantime, school system officials also are preparing for the July 13 launch of “Season 3” of their Edflix online learning platform, which will provide two different summer school options for all students (not just those who would have been enrolled in summer school for remediation purposes).

Those will include asynchronous and synchronous learning; the former referring to online lessons that students complete as they see fit, the latter referring to online lessons that are taught live, at a specific time, by teachers.

There will be no charge for any of those options at the elementary school level – even remediation.

But the normal fees of $180 for a middle school course and $300 for a high school course (or $450 for two courses) will apply for students at those levels who need to re-take a class, Cashwell said, and accelerated learning courses also will carry fees.

Students whose teachers have recommended them for remediation courses should hear from them by Friday if they haven’t already, Teigen told the board during Thursday’s meeting.

Pre- or post-Labor Day start in 2021?
Plans for the following school year also will take shape soon – June 18, to be exact, when the School Board votes to adopt a calendar for the year. Board members will choose from one of two options – a standard post-Labor Day start (Sept. 8, 2021) or a new pre-Labor Day option (Aug. 23, 2021).

A survey sent to families last week asking for input has returned about 8,500 responses to date, Teigen said, with support for both plans just about split. Cashwell already has indicated that she and staff members will recommend the post-Labor Day date to the board, for a variety of reasons.

Among them:

• the fact that students who won’t be able to have typical summer vacations this year would have a shortened summer next year with a pre-Labor Day start;

• the fact that new versions of Highland Springs and Tucker high schools and Holladay Elementary School are scheduled to open for the 2021-22 school year and already are on accelerated timelines, meaning they might not be ready to open two weeks earlier. (Three Chopt District board member Micky Ogburn, however, theorized that perhaps construction efforts could speed up because of the pandemic, since it can continue during the 12 or 13 days on which it would have been reduced or paused to allow for testing or other in-school events.)

A pre-Labor Day start would not move the beginning of fall sports and activities seasons back even earlier than normal in August, because those starting dates already are established by the Virginia High School League, Teigen said.