The closure of school and navigation of COVID-19 felt traumatic for students and adults alike. As they reopen school doors, leaders are focusing on how to welcome students back with joy and celebration (while also implementing new safety policies).
This article from KQED discusses the value in giving stakeholders like staff members and students opportunities to give input on school reopening plans to help build ownership and investment.
School leadership built in time for staff members to give feedback on and poke holes in the return to school plan in order to strengthen the plan and to invest staff members who were apprehensive about returning to the school building in the plan.
Reopening relies on having all staff meaningfully bought into plan creation and implementation. Leaders are developing practices for ongoing staff engagement and feedback to build and offer clarity on plans.
Principal Josh Otlin sent weekly updates to parents and students during the lead-up to reopening their school building in the fall of 2020. This is the newsletter that went out the week before school reopened and includes the explanations of the switch to the 4×4 schedule, procedures when in the building, expectations on remote days.
Milford High School switched to a 4×4 model in response to the pandemic. This is a sample of what courses an 11th grader would take.
Milford High School switched to a 4×4 model in response to the pandemic. This is a sample of what courses a 9th grader would take.
In their hybrid model, all Milford High School students learned remotely on Wednesdays. This is the schedule they followed
Hybrid model schedule used at Milford High School. This was used on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Milford High School switched to a 4×4 schedule for the 2020-2021 school year to minimize risk of spreading COVID-19, believing this schedule would benefit students academically in response to the conditions caused by the pandemic.
