Troy outlines pandemic plan as school year approaches

Administrators with Troy Public Schools expect that masks will be optional when students return to classes later this month.

In phase three of the district’s pandemic operation outline, the phase in which Superintendent Jacob Francom is asking the school board to reopen classrooms on Aug. 31, school officials will not require students to don face coverings.

Administrators will use seating charts to keep students distanced while in classrooms and on buses. Teachers, support staff and custodians will regularly disinfect desks and other surfaces and remote educational programs will be available for students. Schools will follow a regular schedule, but extracurricular activities could be limited, according to the outline.

Francom noted that the district’s plans could change as the start of classes approaches but said school officials could pivot if needed.

“We are ready, equipped and trained,” he said in a statement on Aug. 10.

Were the local spread of the coronavirus to become more severe, the school district could shift into phase two of their operational outline. In this phase, schools would continue to follow a regular schedule and calendar but lunch periods would be staggered and school officials would organize students into cohorts. These groups of students would remain separate throughout the school day to minimize contact. Administrators would use strict seating charts and could break students into sets of threes for group work.

Schools could use cafeterias in phase two, with students eating with their cohorts. While administrators would encourage social distancing in phase two, cohort groups could interact outside during recess or lunch. Extracurriculars could be limited in this phase.

Phase one of the operational outline resembles phase two, but with a few more restrictions. School officials would require masks under phase one for one-on-one and small group work. Students could remove their face coverings when seated six feet apart at their desks. Teachers also could take off their masks while maintaining social distance.

School officials could limit extracurricular activities in phase one by restricting or forbidding spectators at events and canceling activities. Administrators would not allow visitors or volunteers in school buildings. Parents hoping to drop items off would have to call ahead so a secretary could meet them outside. Students would eat lunch in classrooms in phase one.

Parents who aren’t comfortable with sending their children to school in phase one or two can fill out a form and opt-out of in-person learning in favor of remote learning.

Kindergarten through eighth grade students on remote learning schedules will have to use Google Classroom or a paper-based system to complete the same assignments as their in-person classmates. High school students who opt-out of in-person learning will do their work through the Montana Digital Academy or a paper-based provider.

In phase zero, the most restrictive phase of the plan, the district would close schools and switch to remote learning programs. Administrators would close all facilities and cancel all activities. Students would be able to get meals through home delivery.

School officials have made provisions for a near-complete return to normalcy in phase four of their operational outline. In this phase, the district would resume “relatively normal operations and school schedule” with possibly reduced extracurricular activities, the outline reads.