Principal Cunningham Discussed the Latest with Parents October 20

During the evening town hall, we shared with parents the latest information we have around returning to the building. You can view the recording here. (Our apologies that a few minutes at the beginning and end of the session were cut off.) You can also view the slide deck shared here. Below are some of the highlights from the meeting:

Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd graders

In the next wave of students returning to the building, we'll have our youngest learners. Kindergarteners are scheduled to return November 16 and first and second grade students are scheduled to return November 30. As of now, the plan is for these students to return two days a week, grouped primarily by last name. The first half of the alphabet will attend school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the second half Thursdays and Fridays. Due to capacity and enrollment numbers, a few students may be shifted outside of their assigned alphabet days. Communication will come from the school soon around which days your child will be scheduled to attend.

Grades 3-5

According to the current proposal from the superintendent, grades 3-5 would return after winter break, on January 4th. This date and others are all subject to school board approval and health metrices put out by the county and are subject to change.

Want to change or check your student's online v in-person status?

For those parents who would like to change their initial choice for in person v online or would simply like to verify their choice, please complete this form and someone from Columbia will get back to you shortly. We cannot guarantee that we can accommodate all requests, but we will do what we can based on enrollment and capacity numbers.

Health Guidelines

The county has put in place many health guidelines to help mitigate risk to students and staff when returning in person. These include, but are not limited to:

• Students and staff must wear masks at all times except when eating
• Parents must sign off on a health form that indicates they understand that students must be healthy to come to school
• Temperature checks will be done at bus stops and upon entering schools
• Students will stay isolated within cohorts as much as possible

Columbia Concurrent Learning Pilot

Several of our teachers and their students will be participating in a pilot for the county around concurrent learning beginning Nov 4. Parents will be informed by the end of the week if their children are involved in this pilot program.

In this model, teachers may have up to three groups of students, all learning together at the same time. Groups A and B would alternate days coming into the building like the model laid out above and group C would be virtual the whole time. The difference between the model above and concurrent learning is all students would receive live instruction 4 days a week. Students at home and in class would all be taught by the same teacher, who will be both in front of the in-person students and on camera for students at home.

A sample language arts class might look like this:

• The teacher begins with a focus lesson, with students in person and at home watching and participating
• The teacher then shares a choice board of activities for students to work on to reinforce that focus lesson. Students in person and at home begin selecting from these activities, some online and some offline.
• Meanwhile, the teacher pulls a group of in-person students to her socially-distanced small group desk as well as pulls in two students online into a breakout room and conducts a small group lesson with this mixed group.
• The teacher returns in-person students to their desks and online students to the 'main room,' wipes down the small group area and checks on the progress of students working independently online and in person.
• The teacher pulls a group of virtual-only students into a breakout room for another small group lesson.
• To end the class, the teacher brings all virtual students into the 'main room' of Blackboard Collaborate, projects them onto the screen and asks in-person students to close their laptops. The teacher asks students to reflect on the day's learning, calling on students both online and in person to share reflections.

Visual of a concurrent classroom

Videos modeling concurrent learning