SALEM — Just as the Salem School Committee had voted on its plans to return students to schools, newly hired Superintendent Stephen Zrike and the city have had to make a major pivot.
In announcements on social media Wednesday and Thursday night Zrike informed the public that Salem Public Schools will transition to a completely remote model to begin the school year.
Originally the district was set to have students in pre-K through third grade return to classrooms while older students worked remotely, however a new state measuring system made those plans unachievable in the month of September.
“Wednesday, the state of Massachusetts released a new, four-tier measuring system intended to inform cities and school districts planning for reopening,” Zrike said in a live video on Facebook. “We learned Salem moved from a yellow tier, which is four to eight cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period to red which is over eight cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days. As a result of that info we believed it was necessary to begin the school year with remote learning for the majority of students per the conversation and contingencies put in place by the School Committee.”
This week’s changes caused a major shift to the goals of the original approved plan.
“We’re obviously very disappointed about the modification and we are heartbroken for so many students who desperately need to be in school,” Zrike said. “Our opinion, my opinion, doesn’t change about how important it is for our youngest learners to be in school. But as we have said from the start, safety and wellness is at the forefront of our planning.”
The plans set for grades four through high school will now apply to all students. That consists of daily and weekly schedules that include live and recorded teaching remotely. Unlike the short notice of changes in the spring, this plan provides a full day of teaching and learning.
“It’s not an abbreviated day, in order to meet state minimums for teaching and learning,” Zrike said. “It is no different (in time) than in person. That was not the case in the spring. It will be different now.”
However there will still be opportunities for students to meet in person in a safe environment. Students will have the option to come to school once per week for in-person connecting activities or small group outdoor social emotional support, the exact details of which are still being decided.
Additionally, high-risk students will have the option to come to “hub labs” for in person support for their remote learning and receiver targeted small group instruction. Families of high-risk students whom this applies to will be notified within the next week Zrike said.
“We want to maintain connections for all students, not just some students, so that they have a relationship with their school and a trusting educator that may not be their teacher, but will be a trusted educator,” Zrike said.
One thing that does remain the same is a School Committee approved break to take place in early November, the week after Halloween to reevaluate transmission rates.
“We don’t know where the trends are going although the recent data suggests it is going up more than we had expected in the city of Salem,” Zrike said.
“I can assure you we will carefully monitor infection rates with a hope of returning at least 50 percent of our students back to school following our November break that comes seven weeks into the school year.”
The school year is still slated to begin on Sept. 14 while pre-k and kindergarten return two days later on Sept. 16.
