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School leaders scrambling to prepare for students' return, finding classroom capacities cut in half

“I’m not sure we know what normal is anymore,” Rock Hill Schools spokesperson Mychal Frost said.

ROCK HILL, S.C. — Figuring out how kids can safely go back to school and what it will cost to make all those safety changes happen are pieces of a puzzle school district leaders are swiftly trying to put together.

“I’m not sure we know what normal is anymore,” Rock Hill Schools spokesperson Mychal Frost said.

Frost was also part of an Accelerate ED subcommittee in South Carolina; a task force with the aim of identifying challenges and finding solutions to reopen schools for children while communities remain in the midst of the Coronavirus outbreak.

RELATED: South Carolina releases guidelines for schools to safely re-open in the fall

“If that means we have to continue to reinvent how we deliver education we will and we are,” Frost says.

Facilities supervisors with tape measurers in hand, and with nurses as advisors traveled to schools across the district this week to try to begin reconfiguring classrooms to meet social distancing guidelines. 

In most classrooms, Frost says, the capacity wound up reduced to approximately 16 students in high schools, 12 students in middle and elementary schools. In one extreme example, an elementary school classroom was only able to safely seat 8 students.

Frost says he knows those numbers are unsustainable for a public school population.

“It’s a puzzle certainly,” Frost said. “A close-to-900 square foot classroom shrinks considerably and therefore the number of students that can be served in that rooms shrinks considerably as well.”

Frost says those capacity challenges only heightened the district’s urgency to ensure it could deliver online learning experiences for students and families who may opt not to attend in person.

The school calendar and school day itself are also under scrutiny. The Accelerate ED task force released a 200-page draft of recommendations for school districts to follow. Among the recommendations include an additional five days of instructional time for students in K4-8th grades.

It also encourages school districts to prepare for a full return to school, a partial return to school, or a full distance learning experience.

Frost says they are now looking for family input.

“Later this week we’re launching a survey to our families to gauge and gain a greater understanding of what opportunities may make the most sense for them,” he said.

Rock Hill school leaders are considering changes that may include A-schedule and B-schedule shifts, morning and afternoon sessions, and the possibility that students will spend large chunks of the year in a remote learning structure.

Frost says all of the scenarios come with an added expense.

“It’s gonna add a cost to utilities, it’s gonna add a cost to staff, it’s gonna add a cost to transportation because the bus driver’s day just got longer,” Frost said.

The state is expected to provide guidance to local schools about funding for equipment, supplies, staff, infrastructure, and operations. Many districts have begun incurring the costs and will be forced to seek reimbursement later.

Frost says as they plan for scenarios “A-Z” all of the plans have the same goal: “Trying to be as accommodating as understanding as possible while keeping at the forefront of any decisions the health and safety of our students and our staff."

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