School Board hears reopening details, extends Cashwell's contract

The Henrico School Board discussed learning plans for the coming school year, approved several policy changes affecting students and extended Superintendent Amy Cashwell’s contract during its Aug. 13 work session.

Board members unanimously voted to extend Cashwell’s contract for two years, through June of 2024.

“I know that in no superintendent’s handbook. . . is there a pandemic chapter,” Tuckahoe District member Marcie Shea said, “and we just all appreciate your steadfast leadership through this all. I wish all of the public could understand how great it is working with you, just your intelligence, and how detail-oriented you are, and how compassionate you are.”

Among changes the board made to the 2020-2021 Code of Student Conduct:
• restricting students from wearing sunglasses indoors;
• adding “while sitting or standing” to the restriction of “clothing that is see-through, revealing the mid-riff while sitting or standing, or resembles undergarments;”
• adding “social media post” to Code 4: Disruptive Behavior, so that it reads, “Any communication, activity, or social media post, committed outside of the school setting that interrupts or interferes with the school day is also prohibited;”
• adding a sentence to Code 15: Bullying/Harassment to specify that “the use of oral, written, or electronic language, gestures, objects, or images that are racially and/or ethnically offensive is strictly prohibited;”

The code of conduct still applies as it would in school buildings, Cashwell said in response to questions about the virtual setting and dress code from Shea.

“We’ll of course be working with our teachers and administrative teams to understand how any enforcement of that would look but certainly have those expectations,” Cashwell said.

During virtual class meetings online, students can use blurry backgrounds on Microsoft Teams, Cashwell said, answering a question about privacy and equity concerns. They can also turn off their cameras for portions of lessons that are being recorded, she told Kristi Kinsella (Brookland District), and school officials will obtain permissions similar to use of photos with students. Some schools also are making generic backgrounds with logos, Cashwell replied to Roscoe Cooper, III (Fairfield District).

The board also reviewed a proposed change that would clarify that individual schools and their leadership teams are responsible for choosing their own mascots and colors.

Return to school
In response to Shea’s question about the development of specific metrics to move to reopening approaches 3 (a hybrid plan) and 4 (a five-day in-person plan), Chief of Staff Beth Teigen said that School Health Supervisor Robin Gilbert has formed a work group from which the division leadership expects to bring recommendations to the board at its Aug. 27 meeting. The plan would be to provide updates on the metrics at each board meeting, Cashwell said.

Danny Avula, the director of the Richmond and Henrico health departments, is the chair of the school health advisory board.

A team of division staff members presented the 2020-21 Learning Plan handbook to the board and outlined how the learning process will work for various grade levels.

English learners in level 1 — non-English-speaking students — will be invited to attend in-person instruction, Director of Teaching, Learning and Innovation Michael Dussault said. The school system will use a zoned approach to maximize staffing, he said, so students will be in their district but might not be in their home schools.

Individualized Education Plan, or IEP, teams will determine if in-person support is appropriate for students’ health and necessary for progress on an individual basis, Assistant Director of Exceptional Education Katie Smith said. In-person support will not look the same for all students, she said. Case managers will review IEPs and monitor implementation regardless of setting.

The department has ordered 1,200 clear face masks for evaluators of deaf or hard-of-hearing students and for speech pathologists delivering services, Smith said. Each school received two face shields, cloth coverings and hand sanitizer in their evaluation kits, she said.

Small groups for pre-K through third grade will have five or fewer students, said Scott Thorpe, a director of elementary education for the school system. In-person instruction will focus on relationships, routines and key reading and math skills.

All students in pre-K and kindergarten will be offered in-person learning opportunities. For first through third grade, first consideration will be given to students performing below grade-level, Thorpe said.

The school system wants pre-K and kindergarten students to have successful, predictable experiences in the virtual environment before moving to one-on-ones, Thorpe said. Officials hope to bring them in to meet their teachers in September, he said, but they’re still working on the timeframe for bringing in students in first through third grades, he said.

Some Career and Technical Education Specialty Programs will have the option of limited face-to-face instruction beginning Oct. 5, said Director of Workforce and Career Development Mac Beaton.

The programs that will have face-to-face instruction will be chosen based on the competencies required, Beaton said, and safety concerns.

“Teachers, specialists and administrators will review individual program competencies and instructional sequence requirements for the first semester using a coding system to determine essential face-to-face instructional requirements by programs,” Beaton said.

EMT students must pass their CPR certification before beginning EMT coursework, Beaton said, providing an example of when face-to-face instruction would be required.

Students receiving in-person instruction will wear masks, Thorpe said.

Families should expect communication about returning from their schools, not the central office, Cashwell said. She provided a tentative timeline.

“The idea would be, I’d say by the second or third week of school, and then through October, we’d begin gradually bringing in groups of students sort of in the priority that Mr. Thorpe mentioned,” Cashwell said. Older students likely would fall at the end of that window – in the beginning of October – she said.

Student transportation efforts
Student transportation will transport students in in-person learning and may assist with distributing meals, devices and learning materials, Director of Transportation Jim Ellis said.

Bus drivers and assistants will receive training on personal health screenings, the proper use of personal protective equipment, procedures for cleaning and sanitizing buses after each run and maintaining daily route sheets in case contact tracing is needed, Ellis said.

Students will be required to complete health screenings prior to coming to bus stops and to wear cloth face coverings on buses, Ellis said. The 3-foot distancing requirement allows one student per seat on the bus, with exceptions for students living in the same households. Students will load from the back of the bus to the front and unload from the front to the back.

Multiple runs that differ from routine routes and time frames will be required, Ellis said.