Kenai Peninsula Borough Superintendent John O’Brien is assuring parents, students, and communities that although it may be summer break, significant work is underway to plan for the August start of all of the district’s 42 schools. This is despite the same global pandemic that led to so many unprecedented changes to the way students learn towards the end of the 2020 school year.
In a letter crafted to parents, student, staff, and Kenai Peninsula Borough communities, Superintendent O’Brien detailed the district’s plans for students and staff to open schools for onsite and in-person teaching and learning.
He noted that a 20 person team has been developing the plans for an August launch in which school buildings open as normal, while still offering contingencies in the event that there are roadblocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the letter, the Alaska Departments of Education, Health, and Social Services requested that every school district in the state develop alternative plans to provide safe social distancing measures. That includes providing readiness for a more drastic return to remote learning if the COVID-19 virus makes a strong return to the peninsula.
How the district will accurately determine community and school risk levels will be through color-coded risk levels. These levels will be determined based on information and guidance from both the state and public health.
The risk levels and the implemented actions will respond to the aforementioned guidance on an as-needed basis:
- In a Green or Low Risk environment, school will open on a normal schedule, and be as typical as possible with increased health and hygiene measures in place;
- In a Yellow or Medium Risk environment, plans may require safe social distancing in schools and during bus transportation, smaller groupings of students, the possibility of wearing cloth face masks in some settings, and options for remote work or learning for higher risk students and staff;
- If communities experience active spread and transmission of COVID-19, this would trigger Red or High Risk plans to be implemented which will likely result in the closure of some schools, and the need to provide remote off site instruction in that region of the district.
Superintendent O’Brien pledged in his letter that the district’s full draft, submitted for approval, will be provided to the state in July. The plan utilized input from the post-remote learning survey that was issued to families and staff in May.
Learn more at the KPBSD 2020 Smart Start webpage, where updates will be posted throughout the summer.