Return to School Plans: February 1, 2021

After careful evaluation, and agreement with the Hanover Teachers’ Association (HTA), the School Committee is pleased to release our plans to return all students in grades three through twelve to four-days of in-person instruction following February vacation.  The return will occur in three phases.  This message contains a great deal of important information, but it is broken up into bite-size pieces for clarity. 

Anticipated Start Dates: Three Phases

1. Center School - All cohorts grades 3-4, return Thursday*, February 25^th
2. Middle School - All cohorts grades 5-8, return on Monday, March 1^st
3. High School - All cohorts grades 9-12, return on Monday, March 8^th

The Thursday* (February 25^th) start at Center School allows our health services staff time to evaluate any COVID-related concerns and complete any testing required following February vacation.  Cohorts A and C in grades three and four will attend Center School on Monday and Tuesday (February 22^nd and 23^rd) on the regular schedule. 

End of the Hybrid Model

The current three-cohort Hybrid model will end upon the return dates listed for the three phases.  Please understand that this shift to in-person learning requires teachers to focus their attention on the full classroom of students in front of them for both instruction and student safety.  With few exceptions as determined by the classroom teacher, live “Zoom into the classroom” will not be an option for students at home.  If a student is required to be out of school for quarantine, or other health or personal reasons, all assignments and materials will be accessed asynchronously through the platforms currently in use: Google Classroom, SeeSaw, email, etc.  Teachers and students will be able to connect daily using these platforms and/or arrange a time to connect with the teacher via Zoom before or after school. 

Special education services will continue to be provided for students via Zoom if a student is out of school for an extended period of time.

Wednesdays

For now, the schedule for Wednesday remote learning remains the same.  As we bring more students back into school, we need this time for our nurses and public health partners to contact-trace cases, respond to our “pooled testing” program, and to allow time for a thorough cleaning during the week.  Wednesday attendance will be revisited as a possible option in the months ahead.

Virtual Academy

The current Virtual Academy will continue to operate as usual.  Students in grades three through twelve will be afforded the opportunity to pivot between in-person learning and the Virtual Academy before the start of the new schedule using the election form link that can be found at the bottom of this message.

Transportation

School bus ridership limitations have not changed.  Until the state modifies the guidelines around school bus capacity, student cohorts for bus transportation will remain the same.  Pick up and drop off will be the responsibility of parents and guardians on the two days that are presently the remote learning days for your child’s cohort.  In the event a family has extenuating circumstances regarding the ability to obtain a ride to school, please contact your child’s principal. There are very few available seats on our busses, but each principal will have the most up-to-date information on options.    

Traffic during pick up and drop off will be a challenge for everyone.  Each school is reviewing its procedures in consultation with the Hanover Police Department to determine what steps will be necessary to ensure safety on the campus itself and to manage traffic around the school.  These plans will be communicated by each principal before the new schedule takes effect.

Health and Safety

The approval to move forward with each of these phases will be made with health and safety as the priority in consultation with our Director of Health Services, Hanover Board of Health, MA DPH, and DESE.  As we have done each step of the way so far, these decisions will be based on local and school-based COVID-19 cases at the time these plans are scheduled to be implemented. 

We need to ensure that we are able to maintain at least three feet of physical distance in classrooms and six feet of distance at lunch.  Most classrooms will have student desks arranged between three and four feet of physical distance.  Passing time, restrooms, and other logistics are being worked out at each school.  Mask wearing and hand-washing will continue to be enforced.  

The pending implementation of our “pooled testing” program requires scheduling and logistics at each school to ensure safety and efficiency with the process.  Parents will be asked to provide consent for each student to participate.  That consent process will be announced as soon as we have the necessary information from our testing vendor.  We anticipate testing to begin prior to February vacation.