NEWS
TEACHING TAPESTRY — Erin Kreeger teaches her physics students online while standing in her classroom. She teaches in front of a background displaying physics concepts and refers to it often. (Photo by Marina Qu)
BACK TO SCHOOL UNCERTAINTY REMAINS FCPS proposes gradual shift to in-person learning
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MARINA QU EDITOR-IN-CHIEF | MAYA AMMAN NEWS & COPY EDITOR
n mid-October, selected students began the first wave of in-person instruction, and additional groups of students will be set to return every two weeks. According to the current plan, high school students are scheduled to go back beginning in February. Starting on Oct. 19, about 30 special education students and 20 teachers from McLean returned to school four days a week. To ensure their safety, all students and teachers are required to wear masks. The McLean staff has equipped classrooms with hand sanitizer and students will be able to clean their desks with wipes after class. “The special needs kids will be using the red hallway,” Principal Ellen Reilly said. “[Students and teachers will] be using rooms down that art hallway where the driver’s education classrooms were and part of the silver hallway. Everybody will be pretty well spaced out.” The next few stages of the back-to-school plan include English language learners and newcomers. Certain career and technical education students, who are mostly in academy classes, will also be returning. Then, FCPS will target students by grades, starting from pre-K and kindergarten in November.
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Dranesville District school board representative Elaine Tholen recommended that the school board prioritize returning students in transition grades, such as seventh, ninth and 12th grade. “We’re about to have [seniors] graduate from FCPS, and we understand the [difficulty of the] college application process and finishing up your diploma. [It’s hard] to help seniors virtually with those transitions,” Tholen said. “Seventh graders just left their elementary school, and now they’re going into middle school. Ninth graders are in the same boat. They don’t really know how their school works yet.” FCPS has taken measures to protect students and faculty as they come back. Schools have built plexiglass shields in offices, health rooms and some special education locations. “A lot of our air conditioning systems have all been reviewed to make sure that they’re working properly and that we’ve got the highest grade filters possible to try to mitigate any virus,” Tholen said. In early July, FCPS presented students and staff with the option to choose between a two-day in-person model or an all-virtual
learning commitment for the year. In the survey, McLean ranked second highest in the student participation rate—more than 70% of students chose in-person learning. Due to FCPS’s decision to go virtual, about 100 students did not return to McLean for Fall 2020, leaving McLean with a returning number of about 2,300 students as opposed to the predicted 2,400 students. According to Reilly, this number is uniform throughout the county public schools. “Parents wanted their kids to go to school, and private schools are allowing at least two days a week in person, so a lot of families chose to go do that,” Reilly said. Reilly and Tholen acknowledged the uncertainties presented with the current back to school plan, but both of them assured that if students were allowed to go back, the school would move forward with the proposed hybrid model of instruction. “We’re spending quite a bit of money on installing cameras in our classrooms. We will have the camera on in the classroom so that you might have a composition of kids that are there in person and kids that are watching it online,” Tholen said. “You might have a teacher who is virtual, and you’re sitting at
Infographic by Marina Qu | Page design by Maya Amman
