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MBUSD School Board Approves More Cohorts for Return To School

Feb 25, 2021 12:31PM ● By Jeanne Fratello

A look at the TK-5 hybrid schedule to start on March 1.

The Manhattan Beach Unified School District's school board on Wednesday night approved additional student groups for a return to school in person, in a hybrid format.

The school board gave its approval to three motions: one for a high-needs hybrid in middle and high schools; one for the grades 3-5 hybrid; and one to move forward with a 6th grade humanities hybrid. 

Hybrids Moving Forward


High-Needs Hybrids:
The board ratified the extension of the high-need hybrid by adding up to seven "student support cohorts" (four at Mira Costa High School and three at Manhattan Beach Middle School), with the option to add more in the future.

Those students began on February 22, with 21 attending at the high school and 34 attending at the middle school. More than 150 students were invited to participate, and a second round of invitations has been sent. 

Additionally, two new special education cohorts are slated to begin at the secondary level on March 8. At Mira Costa, that will include a Deaf and Hard of Hearing cohort and Learning Resource Center cohort; and at MBMS, it will include resource English classes for grades 6, 7, and 8.

Grade 3-5 Hybrid
The board confirmed that the grade 3-5 hybrid program will begin on March 1. There will be a morning cohort and an afternoon cohort on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, with Wednesdays spent in distance learning (see diagram above).

Grade 6 Humanities Hybrid
The board agreed to move forward with next steps in planning for 6th graders to begin in-person humanities classes on March 8.

 A tentative plan would split each humanities class into two.

From March 8-19, the afternoon humanities classes would attend school in person for three hours a day, two days a week. (Half would attend on Monday/Tuesday, and half would attend on Thursday/Friday.)


 

From March 22-April 1, the morning humanities classes would return to in-person school for three hours a day, two days a week, with half attending Monday/Tuesday and half attending Thursday/Friday. (Note that the morning cohorts are longer because there is a "nutrition" break in the middle.)

The groups would be split like that because current rules do not allow a teacher to be with more than two cohorts in a week - so therefore a teacher's morning and afternoon groups would have to come on different weeks.

Spacing,  In-Person Learning, Vaccines


The board briefly discussed policies on TK-5 hybrid classrooms, where the Department of Public Health has called for distancing student chairs at least six feet away from one another, except where six feet of distance is not possible after a "good-faith effort" has been made.

Using computer modeling of Manhattan Beach classrooms done this summer, estimates showed that classrooms could accommodate between 11 to 25 students using these distances, with most classrooms able to accommodate between 14 to 21 students. However, there are at least 13 classrooms with more than 21 students (although it is unclear whether all the students in a class would choose to return to in-person learning.)

Board members asked if it was possible to push the "good faith" guidelines as far as possible.

'"With the vaccine headed our way, i think it’s time to for us be more generous with our interpretation of the guidelines that the county has established," said board member Sally Peel. "It’s my belief that with a generous interpretation of distancing and the possibility of using outside space or alternative spaces, there’s a way to make it work."

MBUSD Superintendent Mike Matthews said that the schools do have some situations where there will be less than 6 feet between students. However, he added, "I believe putting more students in classrooms could be helpful in many ways, but in my eyes it does not follow what the regulations are stating right now."

Additionally, he noted that if the numbers keep on improving the way they have been, it's very possible that those regulations will change.

The board also discussed what potential middle and high school in-person schedules could look like.

While returning to school for just one or two classes could be considered inconvenient, the two student members of the school board jumped in to say that they would gladly experience inconvenience for the chance to return to school in person.

"I would be OK with going back and forth if was just a little bit of extra work, just to get that in-person time," said student board member Emma Clarke.

Joe Staszkow, the other student board member, added, "I would also do anything just to be back on campus again, and I don’t mind any hectic kind of schedule - I just want to be back."

Matthews also noted that the Beach Cities Health District will receive vaccines early next week designed for school employees, and that about 85 percent of MBUSD employees have said they want the vaccine. The vaccines will be prioritized to go first to instructors working in person with IEP students, then to employees working at a school site as of March 1;  then to employees working at a district site; and then all other employees.



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