Hoquiam School District announces plan for Sept. 2 school opener

By Dan Hammock • July 21, 2020 3:30 pm
COURTESY PHOTO Replacement of the old cedar shakes at Hoquiam High School is underway. Here you can see the new composite shakes going up, which match the look of the Mansard-style roof and will hold up to Hoquiam weather.
COURTESY PHOTO Replacement of the old cedar shakes at Hoquiam High School is underway. Here you can see the new composite shakes going up, which match the look of the Mansard-style roof and will hold up to Hoquiam weather.

The Hoquiam School District reopening committee has recommended a mix of on-site and remote learning for the 2020-21 school year beginning Sept. 2.

The tentative current plan was drafted by a group of administrators, teachers, community leaders and parents, with direction from the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the local health department.

With things changing rapidly, both locally and statewide, the plan is by no means set in stone. Superintendent Mike Villarreal continues to ask parents to be flexible and patient. He said he understands the burden a split of on-site and virtual learning can put on them, and is trying to get a plan out to parents as soon as possible, but the constantly changing environment means the district, and its students and parents, may need to be flexible if the county is dropped a phase and other restrictions are put in place.

Elementary School

K-8 will be on-site Monday-Thursday, with Friday a virtual learning day.

“Instruction still has to take place (Friday),” said School Board President Chris Eide. “As long as teachers are planning for that day it counts as a full instructional day. Kids could be watching videos at home and it would still count as part of the 180-day school year. That’s critical, not losing any days on that.”

Elementary school days will begin at 8:30 a.m., and Lincoln Elementary 2nd- and 3rd-graders will have their lessons at the high school as the school is remodeled – the district expects to go out for bids on that large-scale remodel in a few weeks. The end of the day will be 2:15 p.m. for Emerson students, 2:20 p.m. for Lincoln, and 2:25 p.m. for Central.

There is also a 100% virtual option program for families that are not comfortable with face to face instruction.

High School

The high school will only offer on-site classes two days a week, with students split into two groups and each group attending two days a week. The rest will be virtual online instruction. School starts at 8 p.m. and ends at 2 p.m.

“We’re also going to a four quarter system, running a three period day,” said Eide. The high school has operated in the past on a two-semester a year, six period day. “It means essentially a high school class gets done in a quarter of the time,” said Eide.

Villarreal said other factors are taken into consideration when having two days of on-site learning for the high school. For one, he said the classrooms themselves in the high school are the smallest in the district; when social distancing requirements are in place, they will be lucky to get 21 kids in a class.

He said high school-age kids also tend to handle the online learning better than younger kids, and with working families it’s easier on them to leave their high school kids at home alone during the day than it is for parents of middle and elementary school kids.

Villarreal called it an “A/B” schedule for the high school. The student body will be divided into two groups, each on campus for two days a week. Splitting them into Freshman/Sophomore and Junior/Senior groups sounds easiest, but because of the “multi-level” classes that mix different grade levels more thought has to be put into the grouping.

Middle School

The middle school will also be on a four-day on-site schedule with a day of virtual learning on Friday. School begins at 8:05 a.m. and ends at 2:05 p.m.

Cooperation is key

Eide said the district will be engaging parents in a great deal of education about how on-site learning will look. Students will have to be screened and follow the guidelines for social distancing and face coverings.

Then there are other questions. How will transportation be handled? What about meal service, and programs like physical education and band? Special Education and gifted and talented programs? Those details are still in the works and likely will be until a final opening plan is required by the state two weeks before the scheduled school start date. The board will likely hold a meeting to approve its re-opening plan toward the end of August.

The district plans to help educate parents about what is required of them and their students for a safe re-opening in the way of short instructional videos, which will be posted on the district website, hoquiam.net.

“As of now our directive is we’ve been told by (the state Superintendent of Public Instruction) to plan for opening school as best we can,” said Villarreal. “And we have to be ready to flip the switch; it could be the governor could say we’re not ready. It could mean starting all virtually and we have to have a plan ready to start school do it virtually.”