By Rita Li, Staff Writer
This semester, different school districts around our area have adopted different methods to handle the new socially distant school year. While the San Mateo Union High School District has adopted a fully online fall semester, the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Palo Alto Unified School District, and Sequoia High School District have given students different options to choose between distance learning and physical school. Ultimately, each school district is trying its best to ensure safety during these unsafe times.
In Mercy High School, students have the choice of staying completely online and doing a Hybrid Cohort ABCAB model. With the hybrid system, students attend school physically on Mondays and Thursdays or Tuesdays and Fridays, depending on what group they have been placed in. All students have to stay home and receive distance learning on Wednesdays. The A days have four 80 minute classes while the B days have 3 classes with an additional advisory collaboration period: a time for students to study at the end of the school day. There will be safety standards, as this hybrid model gives students the opportunity to talk to their teachers in-person and have a more interactive experience. Students who want to opt out of the hybrid model in the future may instead choose a completely online learning experience.
The students at St. Ignatius, a private high school located in San Francisco, are still in the distance learning phase because the campuses have not been cleared for physical learning yet. The current school schedule requires students to attend their first four periods on Mondays and Thursdays and periods five through seven on Tuesdays and Fridays. Each period is one hour and fifteen minutes. When the St. Ignatius students have the choice to switch to the hybrid model, Group A will attend physical school for four days on week A and Group B will attend physical school on week B. There will be two groups because it is optimal for reducing transmissions of the virus. Desks would be arranged three to six feet apart, all facing the same direction so students won’t have to face each other.
The Palo Alto Unified School District, which consists of Addison, Barron Park, Duveneck, El Carmelo, Escondido, Fairmeadow, Herbert Hoover, and Juana Briones High Schools also provides a similar hybrid model with a combination of distance and in-person learning. To ensure safety, the school sites have determined desk spacing and airflow management. Signs have been posted on campus to remind students to wear face masks, wash hands frequently, avoid unnecessary contact, and not go to school if experiencing COVID symptoms. This school district is currently using Schoology, a user-centric learning management platform that helps students manage day-to-day activities. It is also a platform being used by other high school students who have chosen a blended learning system.
The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD),which consists of Balboa, Burton, Philip, Sala, Downtown, Galileo, and Independent High Schools are currently developing a phase 2-Hybrid model, which will replace the distance learning program they currently have. SFUSD has not implemented the model yet because there are many factors to consider, such as the variation of staffing, facility size, workplace set-up, and student enrollment. The health and safety protocols of the SFUSD include screening students each morning, isolating anyone with COVID symptoms, limiting sharing of objects, posting safety signs around campus, disinfecting high touch surfaces, six-foot distancing between student facilities, minimizing volunteers in school sites, wearing face coverings at all times, and teaching students and employees hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette. SFUSD regularly meets with community groups, parent committees, the Department of Health, and other city officials to share proposals and receive feedback.
In the Sequoia High School District, which consists of Carlmont, Sequoia, Woodside, and Menlo-Atherton High Schools, students are committed to distance learning for the whole semester. However, students attend asynchronous classes instead of synchronous classes on Wednesdays. The standards for distance learning are daily interactions, helping students in need, full attendance, checking internet connectivity, minimum instructional time, and replacing accountability plans. Their school schedule is very similar to those of Mills’ Zoom calls, with Mondays and Thursdays as odd periods, and Tuesdays and Fridays as even periods, and attending all classes on Wednesdays.
