Hybrid Learning- School Reopening Webinar March 4

On Thursday March 4 we held a webinar to update our community on our plans to reopen. Once Alameda County is in the red tier we will be able to start our transition weeks. If you missed the webinar, please watch it here. 

Below is a transcription of the questions and answers asked during the webinar and the presentation deck can be viewed here. 

Panelists: Principal Julianne Guevara | Dean of Students Chris Crisolo | Assistant Principal of Academics Jessica Park | Director of Finance Kris Venturini

Moderator: Andy McKee | Director of Integration and Technology

If families wish to change their decision to opt in or out of in person, will there be a chance to do so?

Around the midway point which I believe this will be around April 23 will be the last day of this first half of our hybrid. Right before that we'll send out a survey to see if families want to opt in and either continue to come onto campus for in person instruction or if they want to transition from distance learning to in person. So again, that's around April 23 is kind of the mark where we've decided we'll transition those who are going from distance learning to in person around that time.

Do students wear their uniforms on orientation day?
Yes, please have your students wear their uniforms during orientation day, since they will be taking their photo, want to make sure they're wearing their SJND polos in their in their ID photo.

Can we use the same screening for our sports and for our day at school? Or do we need to fill it out twice?
You only need to fill it if you are on campus that day. And you filled it out in the morning for coming on campus that day. And then you move into your sports activity. You don't need to fill it out again. If you are on a day that you are not on campus, you just need to fill it out before the first time you come on campus. So the first time you come on campus and say 3:15 for sports activity, then you should fill it out prior to coming for your sports activity.


Can students ride bicycles to school? And where can they lock them up?
Students could ride their bicycles to school, we will still have the bike rack accessible outside of the gym. For them to be able to lock up their bikes.

Is it correct that students need to take their temperature at home to submit on the daily Health app?
Correct. The protocol that we're asking all families, as well as faculty and staff is to be able to take their temperature at home and then fill out all of the questions on the health and screening app.

Do all students need to go to orientation, even those who aren't opting in to be on so students are deciding to stay home for distance learning? Do they have to come to orientation?
No, only those who are planning to be on campus, we'll be going through the health and safety training, as well as getting their photo ID. But if you are a senior, who will be in distance and would like to come by to sign the senior mural, you will have that time from 2:30 to 3pm, on Monday to be able to do so.

How are we fostering joy in returning to school?
I think everyone's presence on campus will naturally bring joy to everyone.

I mean, that is that is true. But also, we're gonna have some organized,
kind of gestures and activities in which both students, faculty and staff will engage in witness be a part of and that will start for some during orientation, both for faculty and staff as well as the students. And then as we roll, kind of into our hybrid model.

What is the what's the app for the daily health screening? Where can students get that app? 
Students should bookmark and save the health screening app. It's also available in the reopening doc. And we highly recommend that your student bookmarks it on their phone. They can put the link on the home screen of their phone. And there's instructions for how to do that. And the link also lives on the Student Resources page in Schoology.

What will be done to make up for the last week and a half of instruction when the students are missing during the orientation week?
Thank you for that question. We will be continuing to work with our teachers to prioritize their standards. And they have already done that for the school year being a unique school year in distance learning, and they will need to continue to reprioritize their standards as we now move into hybrid and lose a few class periods. In terms of prioritizing standards, our teachers will be hitting the “need to know standards” and many of the “important to know standards.” And it's the ones that are “nice to know” that we may not be able to get to this year. And just as a reminder, you know we understand that this school year is not a normal year. This is a unique school year and we know that that is not what families are expecting. So I understand that concern.

Will the orientation also happen online?
No, the orientation will only be live because there'll be for the students who will be on campus, the orientation will be for students to really learn the health and safety. And the end the the one way directional mapping for the students.

If there's an outbreak of three people, or more, will school shut down?
The answer is no. An outbreak simply means that we are required to inform Alameda County and inform our community. The school is required to shut down I believe it is 5%. And when I did a calculation on that recently, it was something around eight people on campus.
So we will keep you very informed. If we have as I said, even if we have one case, and if we're in an outbreak, we will let you know. And if we're going to shut down, we will let you know.

Updated answer: Situations That May Indicate the Need for School/District Closure
Once schools have reopened for in-person instruction, the following may indicate the need for school closure in consultation with the local health officer:
● Within a 14-day period, an outbreak has occurred in 25% or more stable groups on
campus.
● Within a 14-day period, at least three outbreaks have occurred in the school AND more
than 5% of the school population is infected.
● The local health officer may also determine school closure is warranted for other reasons, including results from public health investigation or other local epidemiological data.


Are students allowed to go home for lunch if they live nearby?
Unfortunately, students will not be allowed to go home for lunch. Normally, we don't have an open campus where students can leave with the exception of senior privileges. So we will also be maintaining that same protocol during hybrid.


Next question, will you please clarify what is done on PE days, they wear their PE clothes to school and keep them on the rest of the day instead of wearing their uniform?
Correct. And this may be the one day that students will really enjoy just being comfortable on campus. On those days that they do have PE being that they won't be wearing their uniform, we still will ask that they will wear their ID around their neck for the entire day. But yes, some students might throw their you might want to throw their uniform on over their PE clothes.
But it is not a requirement.

How will students maintain a distance of six feet during lunch?
Well, we all know that our students will do what we ask of them. So we'll make sure that they keep six feet. But if they can't, all the areas where students could sit, will be marked off by six feet so they know how far they're sitting from each other. As well as weave weave almost tripled the number of folks that we have out doing monitoring to make sure that we are
constantly redirecting students to make sure that they're abiding by the six feet rule and keeping their mask on.


For students who have opted in around April 23, how and when will they be trained on safety?
For those who opt in, we will, schedule another day to be able to take students through the safety, as well as schedule, time for curt burn to come back to be able to take those photo IDs.

Do we need to provide our own transportation to sports practices for those sports that practice offsite? Assuming the school vans will not be available?
Yes, you will. And the school vans as you know, if we if you think about it, if we tried to maintain six feet, we've determined that we could put one maybe two students in the back.
So we are not going to use our vans. So yes, we do need them to find their own transportation of practices. Unfortunately, for very similar reasons, we are not going to use the bus for the remainder of this semester. There are very few students that we can fit on the bus. And overall for the being extra careful for the health and safety of everyone. We are going to wait and we hope we hope to be able to provide it in the fall. But for now, we won't use it the rest of the year.

If an in person student wakes up not feeling well? Can they attend online that day?
Absolutely. We actually asked that all families and students are very diligent about this. We do not want any students who are potentially ill coming on campus. And we do ask the students to please stay home and join if possible if they are able to, to join classes virtually.

Where do we buy PE clothes?
So there if this question is referring, there's no required as SJND branded PE clothes, students could wear any athletic, athletic attire for their PE classes.

If students have a test scheduled for a day that they're in online learning, will the test be held for them until they come back to school?
So I'm assuming this question is about students who have opted in for hybrid instruction. And I believe you're asking about if there's a test scheduled on Monday, and you're not in that group to come on Monday, will you take it on Thursday? So it depends on the teacher, teachers will have a couple of different options for assessments, they may stagger assessments, if they would like for students who are in hybrid, to take it in person, they may actually administer them when students are in person on different days. And some teachers may just continue to offer all students the virtual option of assessments. So those who are in person may take it in person, and those who are at home will just take it virtually as you'd have been doing in distance learning.

Reiterate the schedule for 310 11 and 12, which is our faculty staff training days?
Yes, so those are those are our faculty and staff, campus health and safety training and reorientation days. So the students will not have classes on those days and there are no obligations for the students on those days.

Are all students required to go to orientation day?

I believe the answer is that all students who are planning to attend school need to come to the orientation day if you are opting to stay home and have distance learning, you do not need to come to the orientation days.
.
The state has put out guidance that if people leave the state, they need to isolate for 10 days before returning to school?
Is SJND following this guidance? And if so, does this apply to sports as well.
We have included this guidance in our reopening doc. The guidance actually states if you leave home more than120 miles away, we recommend that you stay home for 10 days, but we are not requiring it. We are recommending it. So we want everyone to use your best judgment.

For the students who have opt in on the April 23 day, will there be an opportunity for student ID pictures?
Yes, we we will be scheduling that, which may, which leads me to also think about those students who will be in distance learning and will also may want to student ID day, we will explore some dates in the future after orientation to see if we could provide opportunities for those students to come onto campus to get pictures, get their photo IDs. More to come.

Is our decision to either opt in or out of in person set in stone? Do we have to notify the school if we change the decision before the start of impersonal learning?
Thank you for that question. I would say please, if your family is deciding to change their decision, please feel free to email me.
We are have worked very, very hard. Our academic Task Force team to
organize already all the classrooms, all the desks, the number of students that we can accommodate in each classroom. So we have already moved forward with the plans. If there's special circumstance in which the decision has been changed, please email Principal Guevara directly and as soon as possible.


If a student opted in for hybrid, but on a specific day, they need to be remote. Do they need to notify anyone that they're not going to be present in person?
Yes, they do. We we actually have a revised attendance protocol where our teachers will be using different codes for students who are supposed to be on campus because they've opted in for in person instruction. We need to know if they're present, right, because we need to know that they are safe on our campus if they're supposed to be.
So in terms of protocol, if your student is supposed to be on campus, and they are not able to and you'd like them to attend virtually that day, you do need to follow the same protocol that you would for any sort of an absence, which is to email Miss Harlow
at attendance@sjd.org. letting her know the reason for the absence from in person instruction and that they will be attending virtually from home.

Have we sent confirmations to the parents who opted in to in-person learning?
So our form is a Google form and it was set up so that all individuals who submitted the form automatically received a response receipt with all of the selections that you chose to submit. If for whatever reason you can't find that we're happy to reconfirm for you what your decision is. Please feel free to reach out to miss Harlow or miss Guevara or myself

Do students attend a Zoom class on their off days (when they aren’t on campus)?
Yes, and I am so glad that this question has been asked. We are certainly not cutting instructional days in a half each week. When you are in person for in person instruction, you're on campus in classes, and then the days that you are not in person, you are still attending your other classes virtually, please. That is the hybrid part of this hybrid plan to say that teachers will be still teaching to zoom, as well as to the classroom.

Next question is, if an instruction is feeling ill, will they be required to stay home? How will this work with students that opt in?
Yes, our teachers are held to the same standard. So if anyone is feeling ill, there's any possibility that they're feeling ill, that health screening app is very, very helpful in determining whether or not any of the symptoms you're experiencing will prevent you from coming on campus, they will be staying home. In terms of how we're going to handle that or manage that situation on campus, we will offer substitutes the same way that we have done in the past when we were all in person.

Should the students expect assignments during the three faculty training days?
It was not recommended that teachers assign any work over the week and a half of transition weeks. However, I do know that some students have long term ongoing projects or larger assessments that they can be working on over that time. I also know that some teachers are planning on offering office hours over that week and a half so that they can help students and provide support if they are offering or if they're assigning anything. To that extent. I will say that teachers who teach AP courses will likely be assigning some type of review or additional work over these transition weeks.

Where do you want students parking their personal car?
So students will still be able to park their cars throughout the neighborhood,
just not on Chestnut Street since we will have it the barricades up from eight to three. So anywhere within the neighborhood would still be preferable for students to park their cars. And I will add that even if you get here before eight o'clock, we ask that you not park on Chestnut Street at all, because we are using Chestnut Street as classroom space. So we really hope to have no cars on chestnut at all.

Will students have lockers? Or will they need to carry all of their things around?
Yeah, unfortunately, students will not be able to access their lockers this year. This just is just a protocol we had to put in place to try to make sure students would safely distance so unfortunately, students will have to carry their their belongings throughout the day.

Do in-person students have the same lesson at the same time with online students?
Yes, so I know it's difficult to imagine, but the hybrid part of our program is that what's happening in the classroom and what the teacher is facilitating, either on the board or using their computer, all of that is going to be live streamed via zoom to students who are learning virtually.
So they're the entire community, the classroom community will be engaging in a synchronous lesson, each class period.

What if the student is unable to attend orientation? Would they still be allowed to participate in a hybrid?
That's a great question. I think depending on your situation, what I would ask if you could please email me directly so we could kind of have communication to see how we can accommodate your student moving forward.

And is the freshmen health class the same as PE do they wear PE clothes to health class?
It is not. Actually health and wellness seminar is an academic course that takes place in a classroom setting. So it is not a physical activity class and they do not need to wear their PE clothes to that class.

Can you distance learn and still participate in sports? So if you don't opt in for hybrid, can you still participate in sports?
Yes, students who are distance learning can still participate in sports.


Can a student opt to go in one of their two hybrid days only, for instance, if they have a class where they're only where they're the only student in person with the teacher, small class?
Unfortunately, we do need students who are coming on campus to stay for the entire day.
We don't want students to leave and come back based on the class period, again, just to make sure that everything is safe and that we're controlling, you know, outside and inside. If there is a unique situation that you'd like to discuss with us, we're always happy to have conversations on a case by case basis. So I would recommend that you either reach out to miss Guevara or myself.