Back to school, back to normal

Shelby County Schools prep for students’ return

The 2021-22 school year will feature a return to normalcy after last year’s COVID-19 pandemic.

Shelby County Schools Superintendent Lewis Brooks said the plan is for the upcoming school year to be as normal as possible. This is Brooks’ third year in this position and his 31st in education.

“More than anything, we are looking forward to the opportunity to not have to deal with so much uncertainty,” Brooks said. “Our goal is to open our doors for in-person instruction and have a normal year.”

Brooks said last school year was challenging and full of uncertainty. However, he and the school board made the decision to open the doors last August for in-person learning. Students in K-12 also had the option for remote learning.

“When it comes to the education of our children, that does not always put people in a comfortable space,” he said. “But it puts us all in a space where we can give our kids what they deserve. If anything, what our children deserve is the opportunity to have an outstanding education. It’s something we as a school district have been proud of.”

Regarding vaccination protocols, Brooks said it will not be mandatory for students to be vaccinated, but schools will have to respond to students who do test positive and will work under the guidance of the Alabama Department of Public Health and follow the Notifiable Disease Rule regarding symptoms, exposure and quarantine.

MOVING FORWARD TOGETHER

Shelby County Schools’ 2021-22 Moving Forward Together reopening plan was published in July to provide a clear explanation of the new school year.

There will be two instructional options, including traditional, on-campus, in-person instruction for grades K-12. Elementary students in grades K-5 will not have a remote learning option for this school year. A virtual option will be available for students in grades 6-12 only who have met district qualifications.

  “We will have special virtual teachers at the middle school and high school levels,” Brooks said. “By law, we are only required to have the virtual option for 9-12 grades, but we wanted to have it for our secondary students.”

Shelby County Schools will begin with a staggered start. Students with last names that begin with A-J  will start Thursday, Aug. 12, and students with K-Z last names will start Friday, Aug. 13. All in-person students return to campus Monday, Aug. 16.

Brooks said it’s probably been controversial about opening school with a two-day staggered start, but it’s based on what they dealt with last year. Ultimately, he believes it is beneficial not only for the students but also the teachers.

“The students get to understand the spaces they operate in,” he said. “Starting on a split schedule gives students the opportunity to become comfortable, and it helps them navigate spaces better, and teachers were able to create a more personal relationship with students because they have smaller numbers.”

The first semester will be 81 days and runs from Aug. 12 through Dec. 16. The second semester runs from Jan. 11 through May 26 and will be 85 days, for a total of 176 student days.

MASKS

Wearing masks will be a personal decision, but not mandatory. Social distancing will still be practiced as much as possible, along with frequent hand washing. Hand sanitizer will be provided to students and staff.

Students will have lunch, physical education and recess as normal. They will be encouraged to bring personal water bottles and water fountains will be available. The hallways and high-touch surfaces will be cleaned throughout the day.

Academic and extracurricular field trips will be back, although students may opt out if they choose.

In the event that instruction has to switch to remote learning for traditional students, all instructional information will be posted on Google Classroom or Schoology.

“We certainly look forward to the opportunity for parents to visit the schools,” he said. “They can come for lunch, and there will be field trips.”

TRANSPORTATION

Buses will run as normal. They will be cleaned and disinfected daily, and opening windows will be allowed during transport, weather permitting. Students will be encouraged to separate as much as possible, and drivers will use seating charts for riders. Siblings who ride the same bus will be seated together.

CHILD NUTRITION

Free breakfast and lunch will be provided for all students for the 2021-22 school year. Hand washing will be encouraged before eating, and the cafeterias will be cleaned throughout the school day.

Athletics, extracurricular activities, pep rallies and after-school care will also return to normal. Parents and approved visitors will be allowed, but restrictions may vary at each individual school.

ENROLLMENT

  For 2020, the total enrollment of schools was 20,563. Specific to the schools in the 280 Living coverage area:

Chelsea Schools

► Chelsea High: 1,385

► Chelsea Middle: 1,069

► Forest Oaks Elementary: 649

► Chelsea Park Elementary: 864

► Mt Laurel Elementary: 502

Oak Mountain Schools

► Oak Mountain High: 1,511

► Oak Mountain Middle: 1,075

► Oak Mountain Intermediate: 653

► Inverness Elementary: 518

► Oak Mountain Elementary: 642

A PRINCIPAL’S PERSPECTIVE

Oak Mountain Elementary School Principal Jan Curtis said she is proud of the way the students, their families and teachers worked through the challenges of the last school year.

“When students were learning at home, their parents and teachers worked together to ensure that students were continuing to grow as readers and problem-solvers,” she said. “However, we are very eager to have all of our students working in classrooms with their teachers this year.”

She said that there is nothing more exciting than seeing children actively engaged in learning opportunities and that the teachers are preparing wonderful learning experiences for incoming students.

“We are also looking forward to parents being able to join their children for lunch and being able to volunteer in the school,” she said. “Our students benefit when there is a strong partnership between families and the school, and we are excited about seeing our students’ parents in our school building this year.”

A TEACHER’S PERSPECTIVE

Erin Moody, a second grade teacher at Chelsea Park Elementary, was virtual for the first semester of the 2020 school year and said it was hard to make a connection with her students through a computer screen.

“I’m a people person and a talker. I love to interact with people in person,” she said. “With virtual classes, you only get to see them a couple of times per week and get no one on one time.”

Moody said she loves to have fun with her classes, something that was difficult to do over a computer. It was hard for her personality to come across over Google Meet, she said.

“I wanted the kids to have best experience they could have because everything else was already so different.”

In addition to teaching virtual students from Chelsea Park, she also taught some from other schools including Calera and Vincent.

“I never felt pressure to do a better job,” she said. “They always told us to do what we could do.”

After spending half of the year as a virtual teacher, she was moved to work as a reading intervention small group teacher for the second half of the school year because there weren’t enough students from Chelsea Park who were virtual the second semester for her to teach.

“It was great to see kids and get to interact with them,” she said. “I also got to see so many of my former students come in, and it was fun to see how much they had grown.”

Moody was also a mom to a first grader and said every time she went into her classroom, it was like a normal year for the kids. She said her daughter thought things they had to do, like eating in the classroom, was fun.

For the upcoming school year, Moody said she is looking forward to having a classroom full of students again, going on field trips and seeing parents at the school.

“I’m looking forward to opening our doors up again,” she said. “The sense of community never went away, but it’s so much better as a parent when you can go inside your kids’ school, and I’m excited about that.”

Any modifications will be based on the circumstances of public health and the impact on schools. If public health again becomes a challenge, Shelby County Schools will refer to the 2020 reopen plan of Back Together, Cautious Together and eLearning Together.

For more information on the plan, visit shelbyed.k12.al.us/index-crisis.html.

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Important dates

► Aug. 12: First day for last names A-J

► Aug. 13: First day for last names K-Z

► Aug. 16: All in-person students return

► Sept. 6: Labor Day (school closed)

► Oct. 8: Teacher workday (school closed)

► Oct. 11: Instructional planning (no students)

► Nov. 11: Veterans Day (school closed)

► Nov. 22-26: Thanksgiving break

► Dec. 16: First semester ends/early dismissal 1 p.m.

► Dec. 17: Teacher workday (no students)

► Dec. 17-Jan. 2: Christmas break

► Jan. 3: Second semester begins

► Jan. 3-7: January term (all students remote)

► Jan. 10: Teacher workday (no students)

► Jan. 17: MLK Jr. Birthday (school closed)

► Feb. 21: Instructional planning (no students)

► March 11: Teacher workday (no students)

► March 28-April 1: Spring Break

► April 15: Remote learning day (all students)

► May 23-25: High school graduations

► May 26: Second semester ends/early dismissal 1 p.m.

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