This week, at least 1,310 Brown County students will return to class in person.
Another 280 or so will be attending class online from home, and about a dozen will not return to the district at all, choosing to home-school instead.
As of July 28, district leaders did not know the plans of about 95 other students who were enrolled in Brown County Schools last year.
The district offered families two options to start the school year as the COVID-19 pandemic continues: in person or online.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Delaying the start, as some other area schools have done, or opening on a modified schedule were not among them.
“From our perspective, we are totally mobilized. We cannot wait to see those students and we cannot wait to meet them in whatever way they are coming to us, be it in person or be it remotely. We are totally prepared,” Superintendent Laura Hammack said last week.
The Brown County Schools Board of Trustees conducted one more meeting on July 30 before the Aug. 5 start date to let parents, teachers and community members tell them where they stand.
Three Brown County teachers, a school bus driver, three parents and two members of the public took them up on that opportunity.
Overall, the three parents that spoke supported a return to in-person schooling.
Jill Stowers, who works in the field of disease control, said she thought the plan was good, but that she was apprehensive about her middle school-aged children starting school in the “green” zone.
“Green” has all students in a building on a normal schedule. Starting back on “yellow” status would have only half of students in a school building on any given day.
“Everybody wants to go back, and there would be a level of normalcy that would come from it,” Stowers said. “I would like to support going back, and going back on Wednesday, but we should go back in yellow and not green.”
Erika Bryenton, whose children are elementary and middle school-aged, said she supports in-person education because online schooling pales in comparison. “It is a failure of my children’s education to attend school from home,” she said.
Trent Austin also spoke, but from the perspective of a concerned parent rather than as principal of Brown County Intermediate School. Over the summer, his four high school-aged children took a couple online classes through a service called Plato and the results were not what he expected them to be. That’s why he wants to see them back in school, he said.
“Not having a teacher in front of them and engaging with them, they did not perform anywhere near where I would expect them to perform,” he said.
School board members spoke in support of an in-person return.
Members Marlene Barnett and Vicki Harden said their grandchildren really want to go back to see their peers.
“I have grandkids, and I know they want to go back,” Harden said. “They went a month and a half without seeing each other.”
Board member Stephanie Kritzer cited her father’s bout with polio as a child as a reason why returning is necessary. Her father, Kritzer said, almost did not have the opportunity to ride a school bus while dealing with polio and would not have been able to get an education. “I would have hated for him not to be able to go to school,” she said.
As of July 31, more than 80 percent of students who had said they were returning to the district this year had opted for in-person instruction, Hammack said.
The school board took no action to change the school calendar, meaning that school is starting as scheduled on Aug. 5.
What the plan says
The school board formally approved the district’s return-to-school plan on July 16.
It outlines how school would be conducted in three situations: Low to no spread of COVID-19 symptoms; minimal or moderate spread; and substantial spread.
When there is low to no spread of symptoms in a school building, school is operating on a regular schedule in person — with some changes to “normal,” like masks for all children on buses, in school buildings for ages 8 and up, and social distancing when possible. This is Plan A.
When there is minimal or moderate spread, a group would switch to Plan B, a hybrid of online and in-person school. Fifty percent of students would attend traditional school every other day, with remote learning happening on days they are not in buildings. Families would have the same schedule assignments.
Schools are “cohorting” students, keeping them with the same small group as much as they can so that their close contacts can be identified.
When 16 percent or more of students are reporting symptoms, then the substantial spread plan, Plan C, is put into place. Remote learning would occur for all students until the community spread decreases.
Then, it would switch to Plan B, then back to Plan A when the case number thresholds were met.
Plans A and B also allow an option for families who do not yet feel comfortable sending their children to school, or for students who are in a high-risk category to attend school full-time online.
If they are remote learners, students in Grades kindergarten to sixth are expected to engage online for five hours a day. Junior high and high school students are expected to engage for six hours a day, logging in at specific times to meet up virtually with teachers.
These plans were put together by the district’s Return to School Task Force, which included teachers and every department director in the district. They are subject to change.
“We know that it is not perfect,” Hammack said about the plan. “My opening message to the staff was, ‘We have no ego in this plan. We know there will be parts of this plan we will modify and we will fine tune and we will make better.’”
Financial considerations
Parents were asked to answer a survey last month about which learning option they would be selecting this school year. At that time, around 12 to 15 percent of parents said their child would go to school via remote learning.
That number has now increased to around 20 percent, with about 80 percent of students going to school in person.
Some parents have switched from doing remote learning to in-person, but there have been more parents switching from their initial in-person plan to remote learning, Hammack said.
When students withdraw completely to home-school, the school district loses state funding, which is about $6,200 per student.
However, the state recently announced that districts will not have any money deducted from their state funding for students who are remote learners. “The idea behind that decision was that these students will ultimately be coming back to you in person,” Hammack said.
“About 8 out of 10 emails I get are about how we need to get back to school and ‘My child benefits greatly from being in person,’” she added.
If the number of students who are still unsure all decide to withdraw, along with the known homeschooling students, that would equate to a more than $663,000 loss to the district’s general fund, which pays staff and teachers.
“It’s massive. It’s significant. Those are the figures that wake you up in the middle of the night,” Hammack said last week.
Enrollment data is still subject to change. Parents were asked to commit to the option they’d chosen for at least a trimester.
“That balance where we’re at over 100 (unsure and home-school students) right now is what is deeply concerning, because we were really budgeting according to that projected enrollment (from March). Now we’re way off, and we’re going to have to be able to pull that in. With running two simultaneous (learning) opportunities now, it’s going to be a bit of a challenge.”
Getting the district’s budget in line with the number of students attending has been a task district leaders have tackled over the last four years by making various cuts without firing any teachers.
“Honestly, before this (virus) was even a thing, we were on track to have an even better year this year than we did the year prior,” Hammack said.
“It’s hard to imagine it now, but I think right now, to be very honest with the readers and with you, we are thinking very short-term right now so that we can make decisions for today because that’s what this crisis requires.”
Teachers’ views
Some of the teachers who spoke at the July 30 meeting shared concerns that the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and school operations will make it difficult to create an effective educational environment.
“We know from being in schools that social distancing is not possible. It is just not,” said choir teacher Dan Lyng. “Social distancing will inhibit the students’ educational experience. We simply don’t have the room to operate the way we are used to operating.”
Lyng told the board that he is worried they did not consider hybrid instruction, which he feels would be the safest way to return to school. One plan he suggested was to split students into two groups and have each group attend in person two days a week, while going online for the rest and keeping the schools closed on Wednesdays for cleaning.
“By the end of next week, we will be in the red zone and we will be stuck teaching our students at home in a way that just doesn’t work,” he said.
High school English teacher Eric Fohl expressed concerns that returning to in-person schooling would potentially taint the notion that students are safe and protected while in Brown County schools.
“There is no way to have effective social distancing in our classroom,” he said. “If schools open and then have to close down, I am concerned that schools will not be the safe haven we all consider and hope them to be.”
Bus driver Tracy Brester spoke to the board as a representative of many other bus drivers in the county. She said the drivers are very concerned with their health, especially considering that Indiana has made no modifications to school buses to ensure safety for drivers and students.
“On a school bus, there is no 3 feet and there is no distance,” she said. “There is inches, maybe a little over a foot. The kids may not carry this for long, but they can carry it to us.”
Brester said that while speaking with another bus driver who has lung issues, he questioned whether it was worth returning to school or not. “I don’t know if this is worth my life,” Brester said the man told her.
One concerned community member said that the board must value and consider the lives of their employees, especially now, since they are already underpaid and underappreciated.
“Our teachers matter,” said Patricia Krahnke, whose partner, Kady Lane is a science teacher at the junior high. “If you are unable to find a way to pay them what they deserve, please at least respect their health, the health of their loved ones and most importantly, their love of teaching and love for their students.”
Certified and non-certified staff were asked to fill out a survey to see if they needed additional accommodations due to the pandemic. Hammack said she and administrators met with anyone who requested a meeting, usually via Zoom, to discuss their concerns.
“I am really happy to share that we were able to meet everyone’s need for accommodations,” she said.
“We haven’t lost anyone in the certified umbrella to this crisis, but rather, have been able to accommodate in ways that have allowed for an employee to be able to access based on their own personal health issues.”
The district did have two paraprofessionals who decided to not return this school year. One decided to retire and the other was going to stay home with her family due to the pandemic, Hammack said.
The Brown County Educators’ Association also issued a survey to its members about returning to school. The results of that survey were handed out to school board members on July 30.
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Considering options
Kirstie Tiernan is one of the parents who’ve been weighing their schooling options.
She and her husband both work from home. They have a 5-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son who have been students at Helmsburg Elementary School.
The family had a difficult time navigating eLearning when the district switched to virtual learning after spring break due to the pandemic, “just getting it done and motivating the kids and giving them a good experience, and still trying to keep our jobs — the same everybody was struggling with,” Tiernan said.
They were also worried about sending their children back in person and possibly exposing their family to the virus.
The couple have been looking into withdrawing their children completely from Brown County Schools and hiring a teacher to home-school them for at least the first six months of the school year.
“We hate to pull the kids out of school, because we want to support the school and everything, but that’s just really what we think is probably one of our best options,” she said.
Across the country, parents have begun grouping together to hire a teacher or tutor to instruct a small group of students at home in “pandemic pods” or “microschools.”
After placing an advertisement on Care.com, the Tiernans connected with a teacher who had worked at another district and wants to get back into teaching, just in a different way.
“We’ve been talking with her about what home schooling would look like. She was home-schooled and was a special education teacher. She kind of has a really good view of both sides. Once we found a teacher option, that became a much more real option for us,” Tiernan said.
Tiernan said she and her husband did not actively search for Brown County families to bring into their home schooling unit, but rather went searching on Facebook for parents who had already been posting about looking at different options for the school year.
They have connected with a few families that could result in six additional students being taught alongside the Tiernans’ children at their home. The other families did not send their children to Brown County Schools, but live about 30 minutes away from them, Tiernan said.
If the Tiernans do withdraw to home-school, she said the decision to return to school once they deem it safe would most likely be left up to their children.
“I think we’re going to leave the decision up to the kids at some point and see what they like. Obviously, there’s a financial factor involved too, but the more we’ve researched home school, they might really enjoy that style,” Tiernan said.
She likes the freedom home schooling provides and that it would not require her children to be in virtual classes for five hours a day. The curriculum can also be personalized, like for her daughter who wants to be an astronaut.
“We’re trying to take this as it’s one of the options. Maybe we can turn it into a really great opportunity and it can be a wonderful experience for them. Maybe they will want to go right back to school, and that’s great, too, but we’re trying to make the most of what we can out of the home-school option.”
“I hate the idea of pulling the kids out of the school system,” she added. “The school system in Helmsburg, especially the principal, superintendent and all of their updates have been amazing. They’re just so inspiring with how they dealt with this and how they’re doing what they can to get through it. There are other options too, so we’re just trying to go through all of them.”
As of July 30 — five days before BCS was to open — the Tiernans were still weighing their options.
“It might be five minutes before school starts on Wednesday before we really know what’s going to happen,” she said.
“I guess there’s a lot of praying involved, here.”
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The school day is going to look different to Brown County students this school year whether they are attending in person or remotely.
Remote learning
At the elementary level, the plans, as of July 30, were to have two teachers whose sole responsibility will be teaching all the elementary students who are on remote learning. One teacher will be responsible for students in kindergarten through second grade, and the other will handle third- and fourth-graders, regardless of which elementary they normally attend.
At the intermediate and junior high level, teachers in the building will have one period a day that will be dedicated to teaching remote learning students.
“Much like a school day, (they) will work through first period, second period, might have a break, third period, fourth, fifth or whatever their schedule is,” Superintendent Laura Hammack said.
Intermediate students will have the ability to also take an elective. Electives will not be offered via virtual learning at the junior high and high school levels.
High school students on remote learning will be able to take classes required for graduation. Some high school teachers in the building will have a period during the day where they teach remote learners.
For other courses, like Advanced Placement courses, the district is partnering with Indiana Online to offer those courses. This will cost the district about $200 per credit hour, but that cost will be covered by a portion of the CARES Act grant the school district received.
In buildings
The district received around $300,000 in CARES Act money, with $100,000 of that set aside to fill in the gaps for remote learning, like pulling a teacher out of a class period to teach that group.
The remaining CARES Act money will be used for personal protection equipment, like masks, and technology to help teachers instruct remote learners.
But the district’s stockpile of PPE will not last forever, Hammack said.
“We’re prepared for day one. We’re prepared for a good month or two of school, but very soon, the stockpile we’ve been able to accumulate of hand sanitizer, masks, gloves and wipes, it’s unbelievable how quickly this will go,” Hammack said.
Students will be required to wear masks on the bus, while entering or exiting school buildings, while picking up food in the cafeteria line and during passing periods. Masks also will be required for certain classroom activities, like science labs, when students are working in close groups.
Teachers will be allowed to require masks in their classrooms if they are more comfortable that way, similar to cellphone policies which vary per classroom, Hammack said at the July 16 school board meeting.
Last week, Gov. Eric Holcomb amended the state’s face covering requirements, changing the social distancing requirement for wearing masks from 6 feet to “3 to 6 feet” for schools. If students and teachers can maintain that distance at all times, they do not have to wear masks if they are facing the same direction, Hammack said in an update to staff last week.
Teachers will have the authority to require masks in their classrooms even if social distancing is in place.
The governor’s recent mask amendment allows students to take five-minute “mask breaks” in small groups if a class has 20 to 30 students in it. This would be at the instructor’s discretion, Hammack said.
On buses
Some districts throughout the country have had to restrict which students can ride school buses to meet social distancing guidelines, but Hammack said that is not the case in Brown County.
Bus routes were reorganized to help keep the number of students on each bus as low as possible. Hammack said that the 20 percent of students who are now doing remote learning instead of in-person learning will also help to lessen the amount of riders. More parents than normal also indicated on their survey that they would be transporting their students to school.
Students will have assigned seats on buses to help keep them in “cohorts” in case a student becomes ill so that the district will be able to track who came in contact with the student.
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