Harford schools purchasing more than 30,000 plastic desk shields with hopes of returning students twice a week - Baltimore Sun

Harford County schools will purchase nearly 34,000 plastic protective covers for the desks of students and teachers to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Officials say this may allow them to bring back students two days later in the second half of this year.

The purchase of approximately $880,000 was approved at a special education committee meeting on Wednesday morning.

Starting on March 1, elementary students in Harford County Public Schools will return to school once a week, while junior and high school students are scheduled to start on March 15.

It is not clear how fast the school system can move twice a week once the plastic shield arrives, but Burson said that Wednesday the school will not open two days a week starting on March 1, even if the plastic shield Arrived before then. These shields are expected to be shipped in mid-February.

Burson said: "We will not work two days a week on March 1. There is still a lot of evaluation work to be done." "We are trying to create all possible conditions to quickly migrate to two days a week. It started... but we saw that the possibility of migrating two days a week was much faster than we even thought, and much earlier. About a few weeks ago."

Since November 13, HCPS has started virtual learning, when the COVID-19 indicators in states and counties began to soar. On Monday, State School Superintendent Karen Salmon Governor Larry Hogan and State Deputy Secretary of Public Health Dr. Jinlene Chan announced plans to return to the local area and urged all Maryland school systems to return students to campus. Early March.

The board purchased 31,471 associate student desks and 2,298 associate teacher desks with 6 votes to 0 (board members David Bauer, Joyce Herold, and Tamera Rush missed the special meeting). The student guardrail is tri-folded, covering the front and side of each table. Eric Davis, the administrative director of the school system, said the teacher's desk guard is a whole.

According to Deborah Judd, Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Commerce Service, the plastic shield is funded by the Second and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, which is the US$900 billion Federal Coronavirus Relief Act signed into law at the end of December. a part of.

Last spring, the school system did not use the funds from the first round of the CARES Act to purchase plastic protective covers, because most of the money was used to purchase student equipment and other personal protective equipment, such as masks.

Judd wrote in an email: "With the additional funds we have now, we can explore what other items are needed to continue to safely send teachers and students back to the classroom."

Although the shield is portable, the number of shields purchased is not enough to be allocated to each student in the school system. Instead, 15 student shields were purchased for each classroom, which allowed about half of the typical class size in a room.

Burson said: "Fifteen people have made us reach the level of having students two days a week. In this case, every student has a choice."

Cornell Brown, assistant director of operations, explained that some protective covers may be allocated to rooms that have not been used all day, especially in middle schools.

He said: "In the high school stage, the students moved and every classroom was not used, so even if they are not occupied, we will install protective shields in the classroom." "In the resource areas such as music and art, these rooms are not used. Not always in use, and science laboratories are not always in use, but they will be equipped with desktop protective panels so that students can use the equipment when entering these classrooms."

School officials pointed out that the state’s guidelines for reopening schools require safety protocols, such as masking, social distancing and frequent cleaning, which are barriers to bringing more students back to safe face-to-face learning. In particular, maintaining a physical distance of 6 feet between unrelated students is an obstacle to not allowing more than a quarter of the children to attend the classroom at a time, so the plan is to teach only one day a week.

Even with desk covers, students must wear masks in the classroom. Board member Dr. Roy Phillips (Roy Phillips) pointed out that the shield does not provide much protection on either side. Phillips said that young people must maintain a distance of 6 feet from side to side, but schools can reduce the distance between front and back to attract more students into the classroom.

Because they are portable, they can also be taken to the cafeteria during lunch.

“Lunch is a place where children don’t wear masks, so they can take them with them. Some schools can put them in the lunch room and stay there. Other schools can let children put them down, but it does provide more protection. In the dining room where no children wear masks," Burson said.

The principal reiterated that plastic shields alone are not enough to bring students back twice a week, but this is a step in the right direction.

Bulsen said: "Buying plexiglass will help...it only provides a higher level of support, but nothing we do will change the process." "I think this is a good addition. , What I can promise is that we will work hard to reach two days as soon as possible."