School Year 2020-21
What to Expect (2020-21)
Schooling Models
Is the school still planning to open fully onsite and in person?
Although reopening plans are subject to change, based on current health conditions and other considerations, as of the August 1 release of this set of FAQ’s, we are still planning for all students to be on campus every day with several adjustments and adaptations in place to promote health and safety and mitigate against transmission. Much more information about this scenario can be found in “Return to School 2020-21” posted on our website.
Under what conditions would the school transition to a hybrid model?
Should health conditions worsen or were we to determine that we cannot safely facilitate the in-school education of all of our approximately 220 students on campus at the same time, we would transition to a hybrid learning model. The decision to transition to a hybrid model would be based on several factors, among them:
- deteriorating local public health conditions,
- a recommendation from our local public health officials or consulting school physician,
- a critical mass of school-based cases,
- a determination that for any number of factors, we cannot effectively implement and enforce necessary health and safety policies and protocols (social distance, masks, hygiene practices, etc.)
How would the hybrid model work?
The hybrid model allows us to decrease the overall density of students in the building on any given day. Our youngest and newest students, the 7th Grade will continue to participate on campus every day. The remainder of the students will be placed into two groups, the first consisting of the 8th, 9th, and 10th grades, the second consisting of the 11th and 12th grades. These groups will alternate between studying in person one day and studying remotely the other.
Why did the school elect to divide up the students in this way?
In a larger school, dividing each grade into two groups and alternating them would present some advantages: siblings could go to school on the same day, classes with multiple grades could meet as a group. Ultimately, however, we determined that the socioemotional costs of dividing our already small grades in half did not merit the aforementioned conveniences.
Why did the school settle on an alternating day model?
One of the lessons we learned this last spring was that connection is vital to academic engagement and socio-emotional health. Every other week could present families with a more predictable pattern, but ultimately we concluded that the opportunity to be in school on a frequent and regular basis would provide benefits when it comes to staying current with academic work and maintaining a connection with school, teachers, and classmates.
Is this the final word on how the hybrid model will work?
No. We will not have a definitive decision on the specific grouping structure until we have a) finalized the schedule such that we are certain that we have the classroom capacity to accommodate section sizes and b) tested our practices and protocols for managing building traffic flow and density.
No. We will not have a definitive decision on the specific grouping structure until we have a) finalized the schedule such that we are certain that we have the classroom capacity to accommodate section sizes and b) tested our practices and protocols for managing building traffic flow and density.
Under what circumstances would the school transition to a fully remote model?
Should health conditions worsen or were we to determine that we cannot safely facilitate in-school education even in the hybrid model, we would transition to a remote learning model. The decision to transition to a remote model would be based on several factors, among them:
- state mandate, rapidly deteriorating local public health conditions,
- a strong recommendation from our local public health officials or consulting school physician,
- a critical mass of school-based cases—especially among teachers—and,
- a determination that for any number of factors, we cannot, even with decreased density, effectively implement and enforce necessary health and safety policies and protocols (social distance, masks, hygiene practices, etc.)
How will this year’s remote learning model differ from last year’s model?
Like last spring, each academic class will be about 4o minutes followed by 25 minutes of office hours. The remote learning model currently in development differs in that:
- it increases the number of academic classes that meet each day to four,
- removes study halls from student schedules, and
- discontinues most elective (now known as After School Activity) offerings, which despite the hard work, creative problem solving, and best of intentions on the part of our teachers, could not always be recreated in the remote setting.
- There is also dedicated time for virtual all-school and grade level class meetings.
- All courses will be managed entirely through MyFA.
- Throughout the summer, teachers have spent considerable time immersed in remote learning professional development, training that will continue throughout the school year.
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