MCS plans for as "normal" a school year as possible
Dr. Bradley Bezeau, superintendent of Manchester Community Schools, announced the school district’s plan last Tuesday for the upcoming school year which starts Monday, August 30th. He had stated at the most recent school board meeting that the goal was to have as normal of a school year as possible and the plan set in place is for a relatively normal year.
Under the current plan, school will be in person five days per week and students will not be required to get a COVID-19 vaccine or be separated by vaccine status. Students and staff exposed to COVID-19 will not be quarantined and student athletes will not have to test in order to participate in athletics.
Some preventative measures are being left in place for the fall. Protective barriers will be left in place and the schools will continue to meet social distancing guidelines. Hand sanitizer will still be provided and the disinfecting of surfaces will continue. Positive COVID-19 cases will be reported to the local health department.
One of the more difficult aspects of last school year for students and staff was that teachers taught in-person and virtually simultaneously. While there is still an all-virtual option for students this year, it will be through outside virtual school providers. This means teachers in the district will be teaching in-person only, and students selecting the virtual options will have the full focus of their teachers. The district will continue to offer hotspots like last year to help families connect to the internet.
Possibly the biggest question is will the district require masks indoors? Currently, the plan is not to require masks. The letter sent out to families last week states, “If the current requirements, and the status of the COVID-19 virus or any of the variants of the COVID virus remain as they are, the use of facial coverings and masks will be an option for all students and staff in grades Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade.”
The day after the district released this plan, the CDC issued new guidance on masking, primarily because of the impact of the Delta variant which is more contagious than previous strains of COVID-19 we’ve experienced over the past 16 months. They announced that they are recommending universal mask wearing at all levels of schools this fall, regardless of local transmission levels.
Dr. Bezeau emphasized that the school district will always be in compliance with required orders from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, the Washtenaw County Health Department, and all other lawful orders and requirements.
The CDC statement on masking at school is only a recommendation and Governor Whitmer has indicated she is unlikely to support additional orders so it is unlikely a mask mandate in schools would come from the state. Is the Washtenaw County Health Department (WCHD) planning to issue a mask mandate for schools? Susan Ringler-Cerniglia, answering on behalf of WCHD, stated, “We are not considering a local order at this time … We are discussing return plans with local districts, reviewing the CDC changes, (and) monitoring local spread carefully. The situation may change in the next few weeks, unfortunately.”
As the Delta variant is beginning to make its way around Michigan and while overall cases are still low in Washtenaw, they are increasing. Likewise, after a summer of zero or one case per week in the Manchester area (zip code 48158), we’ve had five new cases in the last two weeks.
Do you have questions or concerns about the upcoming school year? Dr. Bezeau will be holding a Facebook Live Q and A on the Manchester Community School Facebook Page, TODAY, Monday, August 2, 2021.
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