176 students responded to the poll sent out on October 28, 2020 gauging student opinion on the possibility of school reopening full time, which was proposed during the October 19th school board meeting. Of the students who wrote-in their responses, many of them said that they understood the “logic and reasoning” behind wanting to fully reopen in order to help students that are “falling behind.” They also cited the recent spike in COVID-19 cases across the country and here in Maine as reasons why allowing all students to return to the building would be unsafe. With many schools around us temporarily shutting down, like Fryeburg Academy and Poland Regional High School, there is a concern that if the school fully reopens, then “we might have an outbreak and then learn less in the long run.” On the other hand, some students feel that reopening would “be beneficial to all students and teachers [who] need to get back to a normal day and stop worrying about a pandemic … that has been going on for almost one year now.” At the school board meeting on November 2, 2020, changes were made to the proposal. There is a new target date of January 11, 2021 to fully reopen, although the school board would be able to postpone the new date depending on COVID-19 cases. This new date allows for the school to make the necessary preparations to allow students back into the building, like scheduling logistics and distancing measures, and monitoring any new cases that may be reported during winter break. This proposal also suggested that December 22 and 23 become teacher workshop days instead of student days so that staff can prepare for the new changes. If those teacher workshop days are approved, then the winter late arrival days will be removed from the calendar. Additionally, with the increased amount of students and bus runs, there is a possibility that dismissal time will change to 1pm. Further school board meetings will discuss any changes to the status of returning to school full time. There will be a school board meeting on Monday November 16, 2020 which will likely continue the discussion to reopen schools full time for students. The meeting can be watched through LRTV. This is an ongoing story and we will continue to report on it. Stay tuned for interviews with students and administrators in the future. - Abigail |
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