SOUTHWICK – Southwick-Tolland Granville Regional Schools are ready to welcome back students full time this spring.
After Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley announced Wednesday that he wanst elementary students in schools full time in April, Superintendent Jennifer C. Willard said Woodland and Powder Mill schools in Southwick already had a plan.
“We are lucky because our reopening plan had Pre-K- grade 4 already in person five days a week with six feet of distancing,” Willard said.
Grades 5 and 6 will also be able to return every day.
JENNIFER C. WILLARD,
Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School Superintendent
“We are waiting for the Board of Education to vote on this, then for the DESE guidance,” Willard said. “Right now, it’s a ‘wait and see’.”
Using non-traditional classroom spaces at Powder Mill such as the library and auditorium will allow for continued 6-feet of social distancing, although Riley said DESE would recommend 3-6 feet.
“We want to keep as much distance as possible,” Willard said. “Safety has been our top priority and we will use that same lens to bring all students back.”
Not all students, however, will return this year. The district sent a survey to parents earlier this year asking if students who are fully remote would want to return to classrooms when it became an option. Willard said not everyone would come back this year. In grades 5-6, about 31% of students who are currently remote opted to stay remote through the end of the school year. Teachers, however, cannot wait to get back, said Willard.
“Our teachers are always excited to have kids in front of them,” she said.
DESE is set to meet again in March when a decision to phase-in the return of students to school buildings will be made. Riley said he would start with elementary schools, then add middle and high schools.
