Delving into the reopening plans for this semester. New information is now available here. Students must fill out this survey.

FCBOE presents the reopening matrix.

Photo courtesy of Fulton County Board of Education

Sameeksha Agarwal, Staff Writer & Meghana Ramineni, Editor-in-Chief

When schools were first closed in early March due to the sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in Georgia and across the country, school administrators scrambled to develop safe reopening plans for the following semester. The Fulton County Board of Education met multiple times over the summer, drawing input from concerned members of the community and analyzing COVID-19 spread data to devise a reopening matrix. The board split the plan into a series of phases in which certain groups of students return for set periods of time. 

The target dates for each phase of the matrix were only recently updated, though. Originally, universal remote learning would continue until Sept. 8, then move to Phase One, in which students in Pre-K to second grade will come to school one day per week for 90 minutes, and special education students will come to school one day per week for 180 minutes. Students in grades 3-12 can also schedule one-on-one appointments with their teachers, either in person or virtual. 

Depending on the situation with COVID-19, the district would then move on to Phase Two, during which all students come to school for half a day per week. If the data shows a continued decline in cases, then in Phase Three, all grades come to school one full day per week. Next, in Phase Four, all students will come to school for two full days per week. Again, based on the data, if the cases continue to decline and conditions are safe enough to return to school, the district will implement Phase Five, in which all students come to school five days a week. 

However, based on the recent decline of cases in north Georgia, Fulton County plans to skip phase two and head right into phase three, which will start around Sept. 21, 2020. With the uncertainty of the situation, this plan has greatly impacted a variety of people across the county. 

ID Community Based Instruction (CBI) special education teacher, Crystal Kehres, experiences firsthand the challenges this situation has brought upon her kids, who are set to return to school as part of Phase One of the reopening matrix. The main purpose of Phase One is to allow higher priority students, those who have had more trouble with remote learning, to return to face-to-face instruction at an earlier point. Kehres feels that remote learning has presented more challenges for her than other teachers, as her students rely on greater support from others. 

“Some of my students are nonverbal and they need parent support, so if their parents are not there to provide support that is definitely a challenge,” Kehres said. “I have a student with a visual impairment so presenting materials on the computer has been challenging. I had to come up with some creative ways whether it was me going to their house and dropping off materials or something else.”

She acknowledges that a few of her students are unable to receive parental support consistently, which means they may be unable to access certain tools on Microsoft Teams. 

Additionally, Kehres believes that teaching online can make it difficult for some of her students to maintain focus. Through her experience these past few weeks, she has noticed that the disconnect from remote learning has exacerbated the rift of unfamiliarity between students and teachers. 

“I was super nervous about trying to teach students that I’ve never taught before. My kids are all in such vastly different ability levels, and just communicating with them, you get to know them when you work with the students every day in a classroom,” Kehres said. “It was definitely a fear of mine [with] these new kids of not getting to know them well on a computer screen.”

Regarding the Phase One plan to return students to the building, Kehres feels her students will miss the routine of seeing all of the other students out as well as their CBI, during which they are able to interact within the community while working on important skills. Kehres even foresees some of her students not coming back during the Phase One transition.

“I know that I will still have several students who can’t come back because they’re so immunocompromised or won’t be able to keep a mask on,” Kehres said. 

Despite the current challenges of remote learning and the possible limitations with returning as a part of the first phase, Kehres maintains a positive mindset as she chooses to appreciate the little moments since the school year has started.

“[Sometimes] students will be doing random things. I looked up once, and one of my students was drinking apple juice from a wine glass,” Kehres said. “I have another [student] who, when I looked up, she had nothing on her head at first and after I looked up again she had a full Iron Man mask on, and she’s just sitting there staring at me.”

The challenges that Kehres has faced as a teacher are similar to those that students and their families have faced during Phase One.

When asked about how she is faring during Universal Remote Learning, junior Tina Dong expressed a few concerns. Like many other students, she thinks she would do better if school was in-person and feels as if the current situation is limiting her in terms of capability. 

“I definitely think there’s this productivity shortfall at home just because I don’t have all of my colleagues around me to motivate me and inspire me as I continue working,” Dong said. 

Dong is extremely involved in school, and remote learning has had a big impact on her extracurriculars. Many activities that would usually happen are getting canceled or postponed because of COVID-19. 

“For debate, we won’t be able to travel to California, so that really impacts this bonding and feeling of unity we have between members. And also on the tennis team, we won’t be able to have tennis tournaments or won’t be able to play in this season until the coronavirus eases off,” Dong said. 

Dong is also the vice president of FBLA, captain of the debate team, and chemistry captain of the National Science Honors Society. From the perspective of a leader, Dong explains the extra work she has to do to retain the amount of efficiency the club would have in normal circumstances. 

“All the officers are doing additional planning ahead of time, making sure all the members are able to stay connected virtually and that we’re reaching out to as many people as possible,” Dong said, “We’re responding to emails and questions really quickly so they can understand what’s going on in the club and how to sign up.”

Even though remote learning is not ideal for her, Dong is not ready to go back to face-to-face learning, as she is still very concerned about the situation with COVID-19 and hopes the cases decrease more before people start coming to school again. 

“I guess that it’s really the best option out there to let us all phase slowly back into having the entire school time, but I also don’t think that they should be implementing this plan this early because I still think that it’s still a very big risk for us to be going back to school,” Dong said. “I think as a junior, I would probably be forced to go back.” 

Nicole Davison, as a senior at Northview, reveals that the reopening plan has put the widely enjoyed senior traditions on pause. Although it is her senior year, Davison will not be coming to school even if Fulton County begins face-to-face learning. 

“My mother already told me that if we do face to face, she’s making me do online, and honestly, I agree with her because I can’t risk going to school. People are not taking proper precautions because I have family members that have illnesses, and I can’t risk exposing them to that,” Davison said. 

Davison actually opposes the face-to-face part of the reopening plan, like her mother. She believes the one-on-one meetings are fine because there is limited exposure there, but the Phase Three idea has the potential to become a hassle. 

“I don't think we should be doing any face to face learning because the numbers are probably going to go back up, especially by the end of this month when flu season comes around,” Davison said. 

Like Dong, Davison is concerned about the COVID-19 situation, but Davison is prioritizing her health over her senior year. She does not think anything is worth the risk of catching COVID-19 due to limited precautions. 

“I’ll definitely be missing out on a lot of stuff, but for me, I would rather miss out on my senior year than be exposed to something that could change the whole course of my life,” Davison said. 

In order to take proper precautions to limit the spread of COVID-19, many things will be different once students return to school. First, masks will be mandatory. They were originally only required for staff, but now students will be required to wear them. There will also be hand sanitizer stations everywhere, in addition to cleaning supplies in each classroom. A big change to the daily schedule is lunch, as this is a cause for greater concern regarding safety and exposure. 

“Instead of two lunches, we're going to go to four lunches. We will cut the numbers down in half. The downside to that is that it'll only be 30 minutes,” Principal Brian Downey said. 

Of the one hour of lunch students used to have, 30 minutes will be reserved for lunch and the other 30 minutes will be in fourth period class learning success skills, social emotional learning, or having a study hall. This way, the student population will be cut down to a quarter of the school going to lunch at a time. There will also be a relatively low number at each lunch table in the cafeteria from before. Regarding both breakfast and lunch, lunch ladies will provide packaged meals to ensure safety measures, and students will be able to grab their food package and go. 

“The Federal Department of Agriculture is funding breakfast and lunch for all kids through November or December, however long they can with the money they have, so there won't be quote unquote, ‘a free and reduced lunch’ for some kids. It'll be for all kids,” Downey said. 

In addition to these changes during the day, both arrival and dismissal will be different. When students get off the bus or drive to school, they will not be able to hang out anymore; instead, they will be expected to report to their classrooms right away. The cafeteria will be open to pick up breakfast, however students will not be able to gather there. Then, at the end of the day, there will be a modified dismissal in which students will be dismissed within one minute increments. The dismissal will occur at separate times for those who ride the bus, drive, or walk home. A similar procedure will be followed with dismissal from classes, except it will most likely be alphabetical, with students from A to E going first, followed by the next group 30 seconds later, and so on.

If the reopening of school does not reach the last phase, students will still be able to connect with each other. Although school dances will be canceled due to the current circumstances, students will be allowed to gather and watch sporting events, whether they are for softball, volleyball, football, or even cross country. Precautions will be taken at these events, such as mandated masks and social distancing practices. One such precaution is that instead of buying hard-copy tickets, students will have to get them online.

“We will only allow 30% capacity in our stadium. And for our gym it'll be 25% capacity. So we will be limited in what we can allow in to those events,” Downey said. 

If COVID-19 cases continue to decrease, the capacity might be increased, which will allow for more connection between students. For now however, since reopening plans are influenced by the constantly changing data of cases in the county, both Fulton employees and families are simply playing the situation by ear, adapting to the uncertainty of change as it comes their way.