by Alexis Gutierrez

Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled an ambitious reopening plan for DC Public Elementary Schools on Monday, October 5th. Chancellor Lewis Ferebee followed up with a live town hall to walk through the details on Tuesday night. Here’s what we know, so far…

Starting on November 9th, the beginning of “Term Two,” DCPS elementary schools will gradually open to provide in-person schooling five days a week (with a half day on Wednesday) for in-person learning. Before you jump for joy, or cringe in fear, there are a LOT of details to understand about this plan.

First, only one classroom, of no more than 11 kids per grade (possibly less for younger grades), will get a teacher. That means if you have 80 kids in 1st grade, 11 of them will get a teacher in person. Kids who are homeless, at-risk or English language learners will be prioritized for that one classroom. DCPS will then open additional classrooms for virtual learning at school with an adult to supervise. These are called CARE classrooms: Canvas Academics and Real Engagement. These CARE classrooms will be staffed either by DCPS staff, staff from another DC agency or a DCPS partner organization. They will log into virtual learning as if they were at home, but have a cohort of peers in the classroom with them. Students of DCPS staff will be prioritized for the CARE classrooms.

Class sizes depend by grade for these CARE classrooms. There will be 8 children in a PK-3 classroom, 10 in PK-4 or K classroom and then 11 in 1st through 5th. CARE classrooms will start the week of November 16th with PK-1st and then November 30th for 2nd through 5th.

There will also be self-contained in-person learning for special education children. These classes will be at 50% capacity and will have their own selection process.

All of these changes means that it is highly likely that elementary kids will not continue with their current teacher for the rest of the year. Each school will have to move around classes based on the willingness of staff to come back. In addition, due to the need to keep kids in small cohorts that do not mix, there will be NO Before- or After-Care offered, and Wednesday is half-day, ending around noon.

How do you find out if you get a spot in one of these options?
Your DCPS school will reach out starting October 23rd to inform you if you will be offered an in-person spot, and then October 30th if you will be offered a CARE classroom.

Virtual learning is still an option for everyone.
In fact, DCPS is counting on at least 25% of elementary families to choose virtual learning to make this work. Families can also start in-person and then go to virtual learning, but they cannot switch from virtual to in-person. Thus, if you choose to start the second term virtually you are staying virtual for the entire term.

Of course, numerous questions remain about whether the buildings are ready for school in the Covid world, whether DCPS school’s IT department is ready for this much virtual learning on campuses, whether this is safe, and whether teachers will come back. DCPS tried to get to several of these questions on the virtual town hall, but many more questions have yet to be answered.

DCPS Chief Operating Officer, Patrick Davis, spent the bulk of the webinar going over what they are doing to prepare the buildings. An assessment of the HVACs for all 80 DCPS elementaries is under way. They are bringing all units up to a baseline and then trying to enhance to the latest guidance by November 9th. Masks and hand sanitizer will be provided every day to kids and there will be unidirectional stairs, signage, and new socially distanced classrooms. That was met with some skepticism from the parents in the webinar chat, as many noted that in a normal year they have to supplement paper towels and soap at their DCPS elementary school. (I know this is true from my DCPS elementary. Parents often buy teachers paper towels for their classrooms.) Further, given the timeline for the HVAC enhancement will not finish until November 6th, parents may have to make a decision on whether to accept a spot before their school’s HVAC is up to snuff.

Mr. Davis did not go over whether the IT infrastructure would be upgraded to support all the virtual learning on campus, but DCPS staff did answer in the chat window that they are reviewing the wireless access points at all schools to ensure they can support the CARE model. This could be an issue for some schools, as Petworth News has talked to parents that report that for PARCC testing at their school, only one classroom at time can take the test as there is not enough bandwidth in the building. No timeline was given for when this IT assessment (and hopeful upgrade) would be completed.

DC Health participated in the meeting and went through a comprehensive approach to how cohorts will be separated and how quarantines and contact tracing will occur. The PowerPoint presentation provides a good overview of how the process will work. (It’s pretty big, so take your time going through it.)

Thankfully the entire school will be notified if there is a Covid-positive in the school. DC Health heavily emphasized the need for families to ensure their kids' vaccinations are up-to-date. Kids will NOT be eligible for in-person learning without up-to-date vaccinations.

Unfortunately, DCPS did not answer whether they are developing a testing plan like New York City public schools (which has its own flaws, but at least they have one).

Further, as those of us know with young kids, finding Covid testing sites for kids between 2-6 years old is not easy. There was no information given as to whether DCPS will be providing testing for these kids or if DC Health will expand testing sites to accommodate this age group. These answers could possibly come October 14th when DCPS and DC Health hold a public health panel from 6pm-7pm.

The most glaring omission from the Chancellor and the Mayor’s presentation has been whether teachers will come back. The bottomline is… we don’t know yet.

According to the Mayor’s slide, teachers and staff are still answering a survey and will not be given their staffing assignment until October 23rd, the same day in-person seats are offered to families.

When asked several times about Washington Teacher’s Union participation in this plan, the most DCPS would say is, “DCPS has been engaging regularly with WTU on reopening since the spring. DCPS and WTU aligned on an agreement regarding virtual learning prior to the start of the school year, and we are in ongoing discussion as it relates to in-person programming.”

That sounds like a very bureaucratic way to say that WTU is not on board with the plan. In fact, WTU’s press release yesterday called for greater transparency and raised several concerns about DCPS’s lack of preparation for in-person learning. As the Mayor’s slides state, principals and school leaders were only briefed on this new plan the same day as it was released. That doesn’t create a lot of time for buy-in.

DCPS has committed to having a walk-through with parent teacher associations, local school advisory teams (LSATs) and union representatives the week of October 26th. Fingers crossed this happens.

In the coming weeks parents will need to make sure they have their children’s immunizations done, as you will NOT be eligible for an in-person spot if you do not have them done. And then parents need regularly engage with DCPS leadership (ceo.info@k12.dc.gov, lewis.ferebee@k12.dc.gov), the Mayor’s office (Deputy Mayor for Education, Paul Kihn Paul.Kihn@dc.gov) and the Council (Education Chair, David Grosso dgrosso@dccouncil.us, Council Chair Phil Mendelson — pmendelson@dccouncil.us), to live up to their end of the deal.

The Mayor’s office and DCPS are promising their IT systems are ready, HVAC upgrades are complete, and schools are staffed by November 9th. Thus, it is a tall order in a little over a month when none of those tasks are accomplished yet. Parents need to be engaged and reach out to their elected officials to safely re-open schools.

Be sure to check out DCPS’s website as they will continue to post questions and answers from tonight’s town hall. A recording of the town hall will go on their YouTube page shortly, too.

Also check out the Mayor’s slides, as I found they have a lot more detail in them than the DCPS ones.