Norfolk could bring some children back to school Nov. 4, but many details are up in the air.
The timeline Superintendent Sharon Byrdsong and staff proposed to the school board Wednesday has all elementary school students back in classrooms for part of the week by mid-November, middle schoolers by the end of November and high schoolers in January.
They’re proposing a hybrid schedule in which one group of students attend in-person classes Mondays and Tuesdays and another group Thursdays and Fridays. Wednesdays would be an asynchronous day for students, meaning they’ll work independently of live teacher instruction.
The Wednesday schedule will start next week, but board members said they weren’t ready to make a decision on the in-person return dates yet. They want to survey families and staff again and get more information from administrators first.
“We thought that closing schools was difficult, but this is also difficult, (figuring out) reopening them safely,” Chairwoman Adale Martin said. “We’re writing the map right now.”
Neighboring districts started bringing students back for in-person instruction in mid-September but this is the first time Norfolk has shared a potential timeline for when that might happen. The board decided on an all-virtual schedule for the first nine weeks. At two days a week, Norfolk’s opting for less in-person instruction that some other districts.
About 6,000 Norfolk students have opted to remain virtual for the entire semester. That leaves about 20,000 students whose parents have indicated they want in-person instruction.
Students in preschool through second grade plus students with disabilities in self-contained classrooms and some English language learners make up the first group that administrators proposed bringing back — as early as Nov. 4. After that, students in grades three through five would come back (Nov. 16), followed by middle and high schoolers (Nov. 30 and Jan. 4).
Classes have a mix of students, those who opted for virtual-only and those who didn’t. Once students start coming back to the classroom, Norfolk’s plan calls for teachers to continue teaching those same groups of students simultaneously, with the use of wide-angle cameras in classrooms so that students at home can watch lessons from afar.
Board members had a lot of questions about the logistics of how that would work and whether educators with both groups of students — about 1,700 teachers — would receive stipends. There’s no plan for stipends, Mike Cataldo, the district’s chief information and instructional technology officer, told the board, because it’s not expected to add to teachers’ workload.
“The teaching would be exactly the same,” he said. “We don’t see that being a difficult thing for a teacher to do.”
Complicating the issue further: The district has some, but not all, of the cameras it needs and must order more, which may not arrive before Nov. 4, Byrdsong said. Martin suggested the district might need to delay the timeline to ensure enough cameras are available.
Another logistical issue still to be determined is what will happen to childcare for young students on the days when they’re not scheduled for in-person classes. Several school buildings are being used currently to host full-day childcare but won’t have the space to continue doing so once students start returning. Staff are talking with the city about the possibility of transferring some of those programs to recreation centers but nothing is finalized.
The board will discuss the in-person return timeline at its next meeting Oct. 21.
Sara Gregory, 757-469-7484, sara.gregory@pilotonline.com
