Cummings: School year will start with hybrid model; 25 percent chose remote learning

Superintendent of Schools Jay Cummings released the following information about the opening of schools on September 16, updating parents on the “hybrid” model and the next steps involving teachers and bus routes.

Good afternoon,

I want to update everyone as to how things stand in terms of preparedness for the upcoming school year. In particular, I want to share an update on cohort creation, work being focused on this week, and communication.

Cohorts

As a district, we are going to start the year using the hybrid model. In the hybrid model, we will have two cohorts of students. These two cohorts (A & B) will alternate in-person instruction and remote instruction weekly throughout the year. This schedule is laid out in the hybrid calendar. Early this week, we will be sending out communication that makes parents aware of the cohort assignment for each student.

Along with the two hybrid cohorts, we will have students who participate in the Remote Learning Academy. The remote Learning Academy is for those students who will participate in remote programming only. These students will not be attending in-person.

Finally, we will have a group of students who have been identified as qualifying for full-time in-person learning. These students will go to school for in-person instruction every day.

We will have approximately 75 percent of students participating in the hybrid model and 25 percent participating in the remote Learning Academy.

Next Steps

Once the cohorts are established and communicated out, we will focus on staffing. Based on the numbers we have in each model, we will assign staffing to provide for the best staff:student ratios possible. Our goal is to have this completed by the end of the week. Once the staffing is set, we will be able to communicate teacher/class information. While everyone (staff included) wants this to be done quickly, it is a huge and complicated task.

At the same time, we will take the cohort information and create bus routes. Once the bus stops and corresponding times are created, those will be shared out as well.

Communication

We are dealing with an unprecedented situation that is paired with many variables and a great deal of information. We have focused on communicating through three central routes. These include a hub on our webpage for all information related to the reopening (https://www.graftonps.org/schoolreopening), use of the district Facebook page to answer questions and provide clarity GPS Budget and Coronavirus Questions & Answers, and the Swift K-12 communication system to send out emails and calls (if needed). If you have questions or needs that have not been met, please feel free to email me at cummingsj@grafton.k12.ma.us and I will either answer you or connect you with someone who can address your questions/needs.

Sincerely,

-Jay