SAFELY REOPENING SCHOOLS SO ALL LEARNERS WILL THRIVE Jay Litman, Jill Ackers & Nathan Strenge

IS THIS THE END? OR THE BEGINNING? In the aftermath of COVID-19, how do we safely reopen schools so that all learners will thrive?

How might we redefine education in the midst of the COVID crisis and beyond to recognize the current spectrum of how learning occurs in school, in the community, and at home? Never has so much thought been put into reimaging schools. We have an amazing collective opportunity to determine what we really want for the future of learning.

By Jay Litman, AIA, with contributions by Jill Ackers and Nathan Strenge

The ending of “school” exposed the intrinsic problems of our antiquated, traditional “Cells and Bells” system of education that exists everywhere on earth. The “traditional” system represents a compartmentalized, analog world that no longer exists. With all schools closed, all notions of sustainability, equity, and access have evaporated. On April 2nd, NPR reported that “right now students are out of school in 185 countries. According to UNESCO, that's roughly 9 out of 10 schoolchildren worldwide (Kamenetz, 2020a).

The CDC recommendations for a return to school call for classroom modifications that will result in a return to a 1950s arrangement of desks and chairs, all in rows, facing forward. As well-meaning as this advice is, it does not recognize what is happening in the classrooms of today’s schools, nor is it a good strategy to minimize the spread of COVID infections.

We cannot underestimate the long-term impact COVID will have on the direction of education in the 21st century. One thing is for certain: We must move forward to find solutions instead of stumbling backward. We must find solutions to amplify student voice, not minimize it!

Ironically, the worldwide pandemic wrought by COVID-19 is launching us all into the 21st century, creating a final clean break with the 20th century. COVID-19 has accomplished this feat by exposing many of our obsolete notions of who we are and educational practices that should have been replaced long ago. Our took-kit of solutions no longer works!

Our Fielding International (FI) COVID Resiliency Team is proposing a paradigm shift from the “old school” rule of one teacher for each classroom full of students to a more collaborative “mini learning community” model. Instead of 20-25 -students packed into each available 700-900 SF classroom, we propose connecting several classrooms into a richer and more flexible learning environment.

This approach would also allow us to configure school furnishings in a manner that would serve to minimize the spread of the COVID infection by establishing four to six collaborative student teams of five to six students each within each classroom cohort. Each collaborative team would remain together for this fall semester.

This does two things. First, it creates an uneven grouping of students within the existing classrooms. This configuration works against the rapid spread of airborne COVID-19 aerosols. Keeping students together in smaller teams also helps to impede the spread of the virus by distancing each team of four to six students by 6-10 feet. The students in each team can continue to work together.

VENTILATION, FILTRATION, PROTECTION

The research and science have identified three critical strategies to employ in all interior school spaces to slow the spread of infection – VFP!

It is also extremely important to note that in all reopening scenarios, classrooms and other spaces occupied by students should be well ventilated with as much outdoor air as possible to reduce the transmission of coronavirus. Closing the windows goes directly against this recommendation. A better option would be to open all of the windows to provide window fans to both bring in fresh air and exhaust stale air out of the rooms. The more air changes you provide in a room, the more you dilute the airborne aerosols potentially containing COVID-19. Filtration is also a critical component in reducing the density of viral particles in the air of all occupied school spaces. In a recent edition of Environment International, Dr Linsey Marr and her team made a clear point in the value in air cleaning strategies, by constant ventilation of schools’ indoor air with fresh outdoor air out to keep viral concentrations low, and to use a ceiling-mounted air cleaning system fitted with HEPA filters to constantly filter out pathogens, or outfitted with upward or inward-facing shielded UV-C lamps to sterilize the air constantly.

As the Georgia Department of Schools have shown us, Children are not immune to COVID-19. Without face protection, mass infection will occur at a rapid pace. So it is logical and recommended that everybody wears a mask in all the return scenarios enabling students in teams to remain close. The mask not only contains the spread of airborne aerosols (sneezing), it will also limit the number of viral particles a person wearing a mask might inhale in this instance. Medical researchers are now indicating that incidental exposure may stimulate a person’s “T” cells to produce anti-bodies without succumbing to a full breakout of the COVID virus.

THREE RETURN SCENARIOS

Based on these concepts, we have examined three return scenarios that will each support enhanced levels of pedagogical innovation. Even during a worldwide pandemic, we must strive to reopen our schools in a way that is not just safe, but also stimulating. We must develop reopening strategies that enable all learners to thrive!

FULL RETURN

The Full-Return Model is recommended for school districts either with mostly modernized schools built in the last 15 years or with the improvements already in place to properly control the proper levels of ventilation and filtration. For the Full-Return, our FI team has