Lawrence readies for an unconventional school year

As schools reopen during the coronavirus pandemic, the building environment will  look very different from the typical appearance of a room full of students sitting relatively close in busy-looking classrooms, teachers engaging the children one-on-one and crowded hallways. 

In the Lawrence School District, the plan with school beginning Sept. 8 is to have a split model between students those who will physically attend school in separate A and B cohorts and those learning remotely at home as one combined A and B group. Remote lessons will start Sept. 21, for the 35 percent of students whose families opted for the distance instruction using district distributed Chromebooks. All students are assigned to a classroom.   

On the Broadway Campus in the building that houses both Lawrence Elementary School and Lawrence Middle School, desks, roughly a dozen to a classroom, are six feet apart. The teacher’s desk is positioned several feet away from the students.

“It will be extremely different,” said Lawrence School District Dr. Ann Pedersen, as she led a reporter on a tour, which incuded seeing the wiring for the air conditioning system. “Everyone has to wear masks, there will be plenty of hand sanitizer. There is no gym and lunch is eaten in the classroom.”

A camera will be pointed at the teacher who will face the students in the classroom. A television screen or a BenQ board (a digitally enabled white board), depending on the room, will face the students. The majority of the screen will show the teacher, on the right side are the images of the remote learning students and the lower portion of the screen shows the class anchor chart that illustrates the central ideas being taught. Google Classroom is the platform being used.

Pedersen noted that to help ensure that an outbreak can be contained and contact tracing could be done quickly, students remain in the classroom and lunch is eaten in the room, as the district adheres to having no large gatherings in one space.

Mask wearing has been going on since March, however the last time students and teachers were in school masks were not required. Pepper Robinson, executive director of the Five Towns Early Learning Center in Inwood, said it becomes second nature. “I have found that our teachers have gotten used to it and if there is a problem with a mask, you can switch to a face shield,” she said.  

The district is also implementing a grade reconfiguration that will have the 2020-21 kindergarten class that were the Pre-K students last school year to remain in the Early Childhood Center at the Number Four School. The 2020-21 third grade class that were previously second-graders will be in the Lawrence Primary School instead of going to Lawrence Elementary School and the 2020-21 sixth grade class will remain at the elementary school.

Pedersen noted previously that the pandemic disrupted the  school year and several elements that are critical to student development. So these younger students will remain in the buildings and have the support staff that knows them — classroom teachers, librarians, nurses, reading specialists and psychologists. 

Lawrence Board of Education Vice President Dr. Asher Mansdorf credited Pedersen and other staff members for creating the plans. “Our commitment is that our students will have the environment and space to learn,” he said.