CACHE COUNTY, Utah — A new plan for going back to school has been announced by the Logan School District and it involves more than just wearing masks.
This school district is doing something no other district is doing in the State.
Classrooms remain untouched since school were last there in March.
Frank Schofield, the Logan School District superintendent, said they are using the first three weeks of school to test out their pandemic plan and see where they need to make adjustments.
Nearly 6,000 students in the Logan School District will come to school for half a day.
16 to 17 students will be in the classroom in the morning and will finish up online in the afternoon, while their classmates attend in-person.
“The opportunity to provide daily interaction, daily face to face contact between teachers and students,” said Schofield. “That really hurt our students in the spring, is the lack of face to face contact.”
Having a half day, rather than an A and B schedule for students allows daily interaction, but also gives students the opportunity to pick up a school meal everyday.
It also means doubling the bus routes, something Schofield said they’re using their CARES Act funds to help out with.
“A full year would be $250,000 in additional expenses,” said Schofield.
The Logan School District is relatively small geographically in comparison to the Cache County School District — making the half day schedule a more viable option.
Tim Smith, the Cache County School District Chief Academic Officer, said they are planning a regular schedule with the exception that school will end 45 minutes early everyday.
Those 45 minutes, Smith said, are for teachers to help students catch up either online or in-person.
Classrooms in the CCSD will have less furniture so students can socially distance.
“Students are expected to have a face mask to use when social distancing isn’t possible,” said Smith.
The biggest concern for CCSD is the summer heat for the first weeks of school.
Smith said none of their schools have air conditioning installed—something that had always been an issue at the beginning of each school year.
“We use fans where we can and if you add masks on top of it, then it makes it even more unbearable,” said Smith.
Both school districts do not plan on checking temperatures at the front door, but will ask students if they have any symptoms.
“Instead of normalcy I would use the word consistency,” said Schofield. “We want students to have as much consistency as possible.”
Masks will be provided to each of the students.
What the Logan School District is working on, is whether or not they’re going to wash masks every night at the school and then hand them back the next day, or send them home with their students.
