West Ottawa approves return to school plans

PARK TWP. — The West Ottawa Public Schools Board of Education approved the district’s return to school handbook Monday, Aug. 10.

The handbook, which was sent to parents Tuesday, Aug. 11, details learning options and safety protocols for the upcoming school year.

The plan provides two options for students in Phase 4 of the state’s MI Safe Start Plan — a return to face-to-face instruction or a fully online model. Parents will be asked to choose an option by 5 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14.

For middle and high school students, the choice will be a semester-long commitment because of staffing requirements. The district noted that there is more flexibility for elementary students that may need to switch during the year.

The remote learning option, WO Virtual, will have asynchronous (non-live) instruction provided through vendors — Florida Virtual School for elementary and Michigan Virtual School for secondary — with oversight, grading and regular feedback from West Ottawa teachers.

The WO Virtual curriculum will align with Common Core state standards and students will still enrolled at WOPS and elligible for extracurricular activities that are permitted to happen.

For students returning to in-person instruction, the district is taking measures to limit contact between students as much as possible.

At the elementary level, this means using classroom cohorts. Students will remain with their class throughout the entire school day. Specials classes, like art and music, will be brought to the classroom. At lunch, classrooms will be seated six feet from other classrooms in their grade level cohort.

In middle and high school the district will implement block scheduling, reducing the number of class periods per day from six to three. This will reduce the number of student groups a student encounters in a day and the number of times teachers have to sanitize classrooms throughout the day.

Passing times would also be extended with staggered class releases to limit the number of students in the hallway together and there would be multiple lunch periods to allow for safe distance between students.

The district is also requiring all students to wear a face covering at all times when inside the building outside of meal times. The masks can be homemade or disposable. Homemade masks must be sanitized every day and disposable ones disposed of at day’s end.

Students riding the bus will be required to wear a face covering during transport and use hand sanitizer before entering the bus. The buses will be cleaned and disinfected prior to morning and afternoon routes. Weather permitting, windows will be left open to help circulate air.

District employees will fill out an electronic screening form each morning before school. Parents will be asked to screen students and monitor symptoms of COVID-19 before sending students to school.

The handbook includes the Ottawa County Department of Public Health’s Return to School Toolkit, which details the procedures the OCDPH and school districts will take in response to potential and confirmed COVID-19 cases and exposures in schools.

The plan also includes information for what would happen if the state or region reverts to Phase 3 of the governor’s MI Safe Start Plan, which would prohibit in-person instruction.

All in-person students and elementary students in WO Virtual would then shift to a remote learning plan more robust than what was done in the spring. Middle and high school students enrolled in WO Virtual would remain in that program.

For more information on WOPS’ plans, visit the district website at westottawa.net.

— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @SentinelMitch.