By SHANNON HAUGLAND
and GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writers
The school year kicked off today with about half of the kids in class and the other half at home and waiting for their turn Friday.
Some families are choosing the remote learning and home school options, district officials said.
“You can’t see their smiles under the masks but you can tell they are happy to be back,” said Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary principal Casey Demmert this morning.
“We’re excited to be back,” said Pacific High principal Mandy Summer. “We haven’t had time to be excited because it’s been planning and prepping to get the building ready for the students.”
With all the COVID-19 precautions in place the schools are having a gradual start in order for students and staff to adjust to the new routines.
Both in-person and remote instruction are available for all grades, as well as the REACH homeschool option, which has drawn more than 80 kids this year.
Startup planning began in June and became intensive in the past month.
At noon today Superintendent John Holst said he’s pleased with what he has seen so far.
“The state did great at providing general guidance but allowed each school district to create their own plan,” he said.
While the general format of the state Smart Start plan was helpful on such issues as sanitation, dispersing groups, planning the school day, and use of personal protective equipment, each school committee submitted its own plan for creating a safe environment for staff and students, he said.
“We left it wide open which allowed for more creativity,” Holst said. “I wanted them to really think about what they would do in the perfect circumstance. And when the plans came back they looked different from each other.”
The final plan was put together by the district administrative team, incorporating the individual plans from each of the schools.
Baranof Elementary
Baranof Elementary Principal Jill Lecrone said she was happy to see students in her building again.
“I went into all my classrooms today and to see the students and their eyes, even though everyone is masked, they had the happiest little eyes I have seen since March,” Lecrone said.
She added that students at Baranof will learn how to wear a mask properly, wash hands, and distance.
“Before students come in, their temperatures are checked. They are given a cotton mask. They wash their hands really well and because we are starting with half our students today and the other half tomorrow, our teachers are able to really show them proper handwashing techniques,” she said.
Students will use their wingspan to maintain proper physical distancing.
“We’re teaching them helicopter arms, putting arms out to the side with a little bit of a spin so nobody should be in your area. And that is your safety zone. That helps really define your personal space,” Lecrone said.
The Sitka School District is allowing families to choose between in-person and distance learning for their children. In the first grade class at Baranof, 58 children are learning in-person, with four learning at a distance, school officials said. Only first grade started today, Lecrone said. Kindergarten will begin in early September.
Lecrone said the safety measures in effect are unique in her nearly 25 years in education, even considering the 2003 SARS outbreak.
“Totally different,” she said. “We had hand sanitizing stations installed in our schools and we sanitized before we ate and increased hand washing with our students, but nothing compared to what we’re doing now.”
Keet Gooshi Heen
Demmert said it seemed a little strange to see only half of his school’s second to fifth graders present today, but the new routine was going well, staggered dropoffs by parents and buses, and social distancing in the classrooms.
He estimated 250 students are signed up for in-person instruction, and 51 will attend remotely. Four of the specialty teachers have been reassigned to classrooms to reduce the size of each class.
“The teachers I’ve heard from, several teachers, have talked about how excited they are to have kids back and to be teaching,” the principal said. “It’s been five months since they’ve had kids in the classroom.”
The day starts earlier, with the first pupils arriving at 7:25 a.m. and a start time of 7:50 a.m. Kids are encouraged to enter the building at the door nearest their classroom. The number of kids in the bathrooms at one time is limited, and the cleaning service has doubled its staff to sanitize the building at the end of the day.
There is no common recess, but during the day there are staggered “movement breaks,” outdoor PE classes, small music classes in the gym, and an indoor music movement class.
Demmert says he does miss the normal interactions with students, like “high-fives,” but said that in general it’s nice to see the kids and that everyone seems ready to take on the new challenges.
Blatchley Middle School
Most of the kids at Blatchley Middle School – some 80 to 90 percent – are showing up for the in-person option of instruction. With so many changes in place, all students – not just incoming sixth graders – are attending orientation.
“It feels great to have the kids back,” said Principal Ben White. “They’re happy to be back. ... having no school since March it has built the value of school up, with the normalizing of routine, and socializing missing from people’s lives.”
He estimated an enrollment of 275 or 280, and noted that some kids who signed up for the remote option are deciding to attend in-person after all.
“From kitchen staff to buses to paras to administrators to teachers – everyone has been doing work like you wouldn’t believe to get all of our procedures in place, all of our policies in place, every piece of equipment ... everyone has been hustling, hustling, hustling,” White said.
Blatchley will have traditional courses in the morning, with electives available remotely in the afternoon 1 to 3:30 p.m. Electives include Tlingit language, PE, art, current events, health, computers and keyboarding, music, tutorial support, science technology, engineering and math.
Kids stay in one room and teachers will rotate in for instruction. Lunch, at 12:50 p.m., is “grab-and-go,” White said. During the day the kids get a staggered PE class with physical distancing and outdoors when possible.
Sitka High
As with other schools, Sitka High Principal Sondra Lundvick felt confident about the reopening and said she was glad to see students in-person again.
“It’s gone great,” she said. “We are so happy to have students back in the building. Today and tomorrow are strictly orientation days and we’re showing kids all the new protocols.”
Sitka High has a cohort system, with only half of the student body personally in-school at any given time.
“Our maximum is 12 in a classroom at a time to set up for physical distancing,” she said. However, Lundvick added that the half of the students not physically present will attend remotely for the lesson using Microsoft Teams.
Lundvick said that after five months without in-person learning, students and faculty are happy to be back.
“Everybody’s just really happy to be here today. We had the wolf costumes out front waving and welcoming the kids in,” she said.
She noted that about 30 students, one-tenth of the Sitka High enrollment, have opted for online learning.
The new rules call for students to have their temperatures checked upon arrival at school each day, and to answer a series of health-related questions.
“We feel like we have everything in place for as healthy and safe an environment as possible,” she said.
Lundvick credited the Smart Start Task Force and school staff for putting together the reopening plan.
“When we went fully remote in the spring, we didn’t have much lead time for preparations,” she said. “The difference now is we had our Task Force working on our plan the entire summer, and we came back with a really good idea of where we were headed. When staff came back last week we made it even better and made it work for our building,” she said.
Like Baranof principal Jill Lecrone, Lundvick recalled the precautions against SARS when she was a teacher in 2003.
“I didn’t notice much difference during that time myself. I know that there were protocols with immunizations, but it wasn’t to the extent of mask wearing and all the mitigation that we have now,” she said.
But for this pandemic, Lundvick said, Sitka High School is meeting the challenge.
“It has been very smooth so far... We have everything we need,” she said.
Pacific High
Pacific High starts its year with interviews with kids and parents over two days, which will be the same this year. Like other principals, Mandy Summer gave kudos to her staff for stepping up and problem-solving to give all students the chance for in-person learning.
Summer said the new routine will start on Monday, with half of the students starting their day in the classroom in the morning, and finishing remotely. The other half will start at home and finish the school day with in-person instruction.
“We have a slow, easy start,” she said.
Both staff and students are happy to be back in the building they left in March when all district buildings went remote. Most of the 33 students at Pacific High are choosing the “in-person” instruction option, and three have chosen to attend full time remotely.
Summer said the school will face different challenges this year with fewer opportunities to collaborate and build the Pacific High community.
“We’re a close-knit community,” Summer said. “The oddest part is we usually use collaborative work spaces.”
One of the precautions taken this year is the introduction of individual student desks, to space the kids apart. Other steps are being taken to limit the numbers gathered, and create separate spaces for instruction.
“It’s taking some adjustment, thinking about how we do discussions and work together while spreading out - we have to rethink our typical approaches to teaching,” Summer said. “It’s been challenging and fun at the same time.”
She said she and the staff were pleased to be able to preserve the home-cooked meal plan – “a pillar program of our school” – although the students will be divided between Pacific High and the Southeast Alaska Career Center next door.
REACH Homeschool
While many Sitka students have returned to class in-person this week, the district homeschool program, REACH, has seen a dramatic increase in enrollment.
REACH Coordinator Connie McCarty said last year 17 students were enrolled in full time homeschool, and 50 students had dual enrollment. This year REACH enrollment jumped to 75 full time students, with another 12 in dual enrollment.
She noted that since today is the first day of school, numbers are subject to change.
“These are all still approximate. First day of school, there is still movement,” she said.
“We appreciate the Sitka School District having a local homeschool program that allows us to support our local students and families,” McCarty said. “They really do value that because they have continued to provide that choice of education.”
