By: Andonia Goergen
Executive News Editor
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees put together a set of new policies to tackle distance learning and developed a plan for reopening schools for the 2020-2021 school year.
The Board approved a five-stage plan for reopening schools at their July 29 meeting. The five phases consist of distance learning, an elementary hybrid model, a high need hybrid, a secondary hybrid and a full return to school with a distance-learning option. There is no set time for when the different phases of the plan will be utilized, and the district is waiting for COVID-19 case numbers and the trajectory of cases in the Los Angeles County to decrease before schools are reopened, Superintendent Dr. Mike Matthews said in a July 31 newsletter to the MBUSD community.
“We are diligently preparing for the time when we can reopen all of our campuses, hopefully, sooner than later, when both of those numbers are much better,” Matthews said. “I know that our students and our employees miss being in school. We know that it is better for our students to be in school, but to get them back we must behave safely and responsibly while ensuring that our children do the same.”
Currently, Costa and the rest of the MBUSD schools remain in the first phase of distance learning. Costa students are required to participate in distance learning every school day, which can include completion of regular assignments, completion of assessments, live meetings or some form of contact between teachers and students. Weekly engagement records are filed to keep track of students’ participation in distance learning.
“We’re still in phase one of our plans here, however, we heard a public comment that said the numbers are improving in the county,” Matthews said. “So one of the big questions out there is what’s going to be happening in terms of when we can move to elementary hybrids.”
To help families keep track of Costa’s expectations and resources for the school year, the school created a “Costa Connected” website with instructions and information as parents and students adjust to distance learning. Anyone can access it through Costa’s website and use it as a guide while the school remains in its first phase of distance learning.
“I’m really proud of it,” Vice Principal Tara Grings said. “I’ve definitely heard a lot of feedback from parents that we need a one place location for parents to find meaningful information, information that they need at the ready.”
To prepare for the second phase of the plan, the district is currently waiting to apply for a waiver that would issue orders for transitional kindergarten through fifth grade to return back to school. At the Aug. 26 board meeting, Matthews and the rest of the board reviewed the required supplies that the district has in their possession if a return to in-person school is to occur. Among these supplies are facemasks, disposable gloves and thermometers. Some elementary and middle schools in the district also installed plexiglass in their buildings to prepare for a return.
“We are not going to be going back to school as we left in March. We are going back to a very foreign environment, both in this early transition and the hybrid model,” Board Member Karen Komatinsky said at the meeting. “ We are going back to people wearing masks, we are going back to one-way hallways. We are going to have to talk about that, and as much as you push and want to get back to campus, and we all do, we are going back to something very unusual and something that we’ve never done before.”
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