LYNN — Superintendent Dr. Patrick Tutwiler has announced the district will be seeking additional community input as Lynn Public Schools’ administration continues to prepare its three reopening plans for the fall.
Tutwiler has announced two virtual town halls for school district families will be held next month, which will aim to communicate specifics of reopening planning, listen to concerns from community members and respond to any questions they may have.
The first session, scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 6 at 6 p.m., will be focused on the health and safety aspects of the district’s reopening plan. The second session, scheduled for Monday, Aug. 10 at 6 p.m., will center around teaching and learning.
The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has tasked school districts with preparing plans for three reopening scenarios: in-person learning, hybrid or combination of in-person and remote learning, and fully remote learning, should there be another spike of the virus in the fall.
School districts are required to submit their plans by Aug. 10, and have been asked to hold off on releasing those plans to the public until early August, Tutwiler said.
“By now, we are all too familiar with scenarios where there are many questions and only a handful of answers,” said Tutwiler. “Nonetheless, the extent to which we stay together and in communication can only lead to better outcomes.”
Tutwiler said that plans are still being developed, but said there has been significant progress on certain aspects to date. For example, he said the space analysis in all schools has been completed, which will enable the district to build a framework and plan for physical distancing per state guidelines.
He said the district has purchased its first round of personal protective equipment, including face masks, hand sanitizer and face shields, completed air quality and ventilation analysis in all schools, and purchased 11,000 devices for students and a new learning-management system in preparation for remote learning and instruction.
“No matter the scenario, we are better equipped to provide a rich, continuous learning experience for our students,” said Tutwiler.
Deputy Superintendent Kimberlee Powers said the acquisition of Schoology, the district’s new learning-management system, is a key piece of their reopening plans.
When schools closed in March due to the coronavirus, Powers said the district did not have a system in place that could accommodate a switch to remote learning. But this fall, the district will be better equipped for that scenario, she said.
Another significant aspect of the planning around teaching and learning for this fall is responding to how students have been impacted by the extended school closure, Powers said.
“There’s a ton of missed learning and there’s something that’s referred to as a ‘slide’ because students haven’t been engaged or learning in the classroom,” said Powers. “How do we prepare for that? Our mindset and proven research out there says you need to have an approach and a mindset around acceleration.”
Powers said that approach is counterintuitive to the mindset teachers would have for catching students up this fall. Teachers would typically gravitate toward remediation, in terms of having students make up for missed work, but she said that is not the best strategy.
Instead of trying to make up the lost learning, which she said proved to be ineffective in schools impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, educators should instead focus on teaching current grade level standards.
To support their focus on acceleration, Powers said the district has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Barr Foundation, which will help educators determine what assessment strategies should be implemented into their instruction this school year.
“The other piece for us across the district is the level of trauma and the social-emotional learning needs of our students across the district,” said Powers. “We’re going to be preparing to do trauma (professional development) so we’re equipping our teachers across the district with trauma-informed practices.”
In addition to the virtual town halls, the school district administration has already collected input through an online community survey focused on fall reopening plans.