Students in West Hawaii will soon be spending more time inside the classroom.
Department of Education officials met in a virtual talk story hosted by Rep. Nicole Lowen (D-North Kona) Wednesday evening, discussing plans for returning students to in-person instruction.
Joining in on the Zoom meeting were assistant superintendent for DOE facilities and operations Randy Tanaka, complex area superintendent for Honokaa-Kealakehe-Kohala-Konawaena Janette Snelling, complex area superintendent for Ka‘u-Kea‘au-Pahoa Chad Keone Farias, DOE deputy superintendent Phyllis Unebasami and Kealakehe High School principal Glenn Gray.
The most pressing subject on the agenda was the potential return of students for in-person instruction on March 22: a target date set by the state DOE.
“What we do know is that after spring break, all of our schools in West Hawaii will be returning to school, reopen for all grade levels in a blended model,” said Snelling. “This doesn’t include families who have elected to be on 100% distance learning for the school year. … As a state system, plans are currently being finalized to transition to full in-person learning for all elementary schools.”
This decision comes on the heels of a push by multiple government officials — including acting state epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Kemble, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz and Lt. Gov Josh Green — for in-person classes to resume as soon as possible
An exact date for a complete return to in-person learning for elementary students in the fourth quarter was not specified during the talk story. Any blended model would involve students returning to class every second, third or fourth day, depending on a school’s ability to safely distance students.
According to Gray, approximately 1,000 of Kealakehe High School’s students are already in a blended model; 250 are on campus each day on a rotating basis. Gray anticipates the number of students on campus will increase after spring break.
“I believe after spring break, we’ll be quickly moving to an A/B model where students will be coming in at least two days a week,” he said.
One factor that’s driving the push to bring students back has been the vaccinations of DOE employees across the Big Island. Though Unebasami made clear that the department would not be using vaccination rates as criteria for reopening, the fact that a large percentage of employees have already received at least one dose is an encouraging sign.
“We’re right around 70ish percent of our DOE invited and took at least their first dose,” Farias said. “I believe that by the March 13 event (at Hilo Medical Center), everybody that indicated yes (that they wanted to be vaccinated) on the Department of Education survey will have been offered.”
When students do return to campus, mitigation efforts will include mask wearing and distancing, in addition to limiting the number of students grouped together with staggered schedules and the usage of cohorting/pods.
Moving forward, a transition to full in-person learning doesn’t appear to be on the immediate horizon for middle and high school students in the fourth quarter. The likely timeline starts with the move to blended learning after spring break, increasing student time on campus through summer, with the ultimate the goal of returning to full in-person learning by the fall semester.
In the meantime, school programs will continue to ramp up. Standardized tests will still be administered in person, and the seamless summer option to provide meals for students will continue this summer, though the exact volume has not yet been set. Many schools in West Hawaii will offer summer programs for students in an effort to compensate for the learning loss from an entire calendar year largely lacking in-person instruction.
“We want schools to be able to practice those protocols to see what’s missing and be able to address the gap during the summer in the expectation that we’re going to be back for full in-person learning in the fall,” Snelling said. “Long term, we’re going to need to start to work with our schools and our leaders at the school level on really looking for how we proceed when the kids come back next year.”
Extra-curricular activities weren’t discussed, but Hawaii High School Athletic Association executive director Christopher Chun expressed optimism about the upcoming spring season in a recent KHON2 interview.
“I’m confident in some form that the kids will be able to do something,” Chun told the network. “The good thing about spring sports is that most of the sports are low-risk.”
The HHSAA — and by extension, the Big Island Interscholastic Federation — is already on the clock; spring sports were scheduled to begin March 1, and any spring season is likely to be abbreviated.
In their closing statements, officials expressed a mixed bag of optimism and vigilance. Though the difficulties educating students in a pandemic are far from solved, for parents, students, educators and administrators, the light at the end of the tunnel is within reach.