Manassas schools to conduct full-distance, virtual learning for upcoming school year

Manassas City Public Schools (MCPS) students will not be returning to school in-person this fall.

During its July 14 meeting, the city’s school board approved in a 4-3 vote to conduct school virtually with an ‘evaluation of all options once a month.’

The decision was made from a list of options, the two excluded being full in-person learning and a hybrid of both in-person and distance learning, as well as with consideration for Manassas’ designation as a coronavirus hotspot by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). In addition to the return to the learning plan, the school board also approved moving the school start date for students from August 17 to 31 to give teachers additional planning time.

“The school board did not take this decision lightly. Although there is a strong desire to have everyone back on campus, the health and well-being of students and staff remain the Board’s top priorities. The board will review the status of community health data monthly, with a goal to return to some form of in-person learning when it is deemed safe to do so,” said MCPS Superintendent Dr. Kevin Newman.

Under the virtual learning plan, teachers would provide live instruction four days a week to students via videoconference, with Mondays being reserved for professional development/planning/ and small group student support. Students in Pre-K to 2nd grade would receive a minimum of 2 1/2-3 hours of teacher instruction a day, students in grades 3-4 would receive 3-3 1/2 hours a day, and middle/high school students would receive 3 1/2-4 hours a day.

Learning would be conducted through Schoology, an online learning management system that allows teachers to conduct lessons, create assignments, and grade work. Instruction on the platform would both be live and interactive, as well as recorded and individualized.

For each grade level, online learning will be differently scheduled. For students in Pre-K to 4th grade, there will be two daily sections to teacher-directed instruction, one daily section for students with additional needs (English language learners, special education, etc), two daily sections of encore classes (art, music, physical education, and library), and one section of student choice activities.

For middle and high school, there will be four class periods conducted a day, a daily thirty-minute period for teacher advisory, daily teacher office hours/small group support, and a section of student choice activities.

Students in special education, on the other hand, will be split into three cohorts to best suit their needs, and be given ‘a total of five lessons per class/subject/prep in a combination of face to face and virtual,’ according to a school board documentation. Students in cohort one will receive four days of face to face instruction a week, one day of distance learning. Students in cohort two will receive two days of face to face instruction a week, and three days of distance learning. Students in cohort three will have the same completely virtual instruction as their general education peers.

“Special education teachers will work collaboratively with general education teachers to provide specially designed instruction for students in person and/or virtual,” stated school board documentation.

English language learning students will additionally be split into two groups: those in grades K-4 and those in grades 5-12. Those in grades K-4 will receive inclusion services ‘during a block of core teacher-directed instruction time’ with ‘language development/language enrichment lessons for levels 1 and 2 via videos, live small group sessions, or on-line language development resources,’ according to school board documentation. Those in grades 5-12 will receive inclusion services through co-teaching in core classes (math, science, English, history), with self-contained classes following the general education schedule for their grade level.

To supplement the virtual instruction for students, MCPS announced that they will give all students a device, as well as establish mobile hotspots in student households for instructional use, which would cost the division $389,000. Pre-K students will receive Acer tablet computers, kindergarten-2nd grade students will receive Chromebooks, and 3-12 grade students will receive Windows laptops. Each device will have ‘a touchscreen, a front-facing camera, a microphone, and off-site Internet content filtering,’ according to school board documentation.

If students face technical difficulties, IT services will be able to do remote troubleshooting services on their laptops, and if technical issues continue or cannot be resolved remotely, students can bring the device to be repaired during a scheduled device exchange.

The devices will be given to students through a structured pick-up process, details for which have not yet been announced.

More information on the upcoming school year, as well as schedules for instruction, will be released by the school division as it nears closer to the beginning of the school year. Additional information on the return to school plan can be found here.

“We in MCPS will do all that we can to do what’s best for our citizens, students, and families,” said Sanford Williams, chairman of the MCPS school board.