1-Day-A-Week Hybrid Planned For Harford County Public Schools

HARFORD COUNTY, MD — After state leaders including the governor and state superintendent urged school systems to offer in-person learning by March 1, Harford County Public Schools released its plan for students to return.

A hybrid model of instruction that includes one day a week of in-person instruction will begin with elementary school students and those in specialized programs March 1.

Students in grades 6 to 12 could return for the one-day-a-week hybrid model by March 15, based on the plan.

"We have a very clear hope to get to a two-day hybrid as soon as possible," Harford County Public Schools Superintendent Sean Bulson said at Monday night's school board meeting. Particularly, he said, he hoped elementary school students would have that option "to start the fourth quarter."

In the first two weeks of reopening elementary schools, Bulson said staff would work to see who would want to participate.

"It's very hard to have long-term plans," Bulson said. "It's hard to predict how people are going to behave."

When the school system launched a hybrid model in October, he recalled, some families held a wait-and-see position, then decided a week after schools reopened that they wanted their children to attend. Rather than having the school system survey families ahead of time, Bulson said it ended up being more effective for schools to discuss returning with their families.

"Families still have the opportunity" to continue 100 percent virtually, Bulson said. "We know many families will still choose that option."

Staggering the rollout of the hybrid model would allow officials time to gauge how many people were going to be returning.

"The appetite for in-person instruction is clearly very high," Bulson said, following a public comment period before Monday's school board meeting that included many students and families calling for a return to the classroom.

Once the hybrid model begins, the school system does not want to turn anyone away and has to make plans to allow for social distancing and staffing, the superintendent said. He also noted that quarantining and outbreak protocols would require adequate staff in the event of closures.

All staff will have had the opportunity to get their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine before returning to school. "It does line up with our vaccine rollout," Bulson said, responding to a school board member's question about the timing of the reopening.

Families should wait for contact from their child’s school for their child’s assigned day, the school system advised Monday, noting there is one exception: Students who attend technology hubs at North Harford High School will go to their home school effective March 1, and will continue to attend classes in-person, in their home school, on their current daily schedule, officials said.

"We have a very small number of students in our hubs," Bulson said. After distributing about 900 hotspots, he said the number of students with connectivity issues was around a dozen.

For students who have specialized needs, Bulson said: "We’re looking at four days in all of those cases." Specific groups are listed in the plan below, and he said some schools would be reaching out to students in cases where needs may be different based on individual plans.

Here's the schedule outlined in the Continuity of Learning Plan from Harford County Public Schools:

Bulson said the staggered schedule would allow the school system to gain on-the-ground experience and incorporate it into the new model for reopening, which does not have the firm metrics the state had created before.

"Mental health, wellness is something we really want to focus on" upon returning, Bulson said, outlining four areas for which he said there would be "targeted recovery time":

• Wellness
• Building relationships
• Re-orienting students to school buildings
• Assessing learning gaps

For assessing learning gaps, he said there are some stimulus funds available for academic recovery, a process he anticipated would continue into the next school year.

Said Bulson: "We know that there is a lot of work to do."

Responding to a question from a board member, Bulson said children who want to participate in virtual learning will still have the opportunity to participate in sports, should the school system make in-person athletics available. There was no update on plans for bringing back sports, but the school board requested more information by its next meeting, which will be Monday, Feb. 8.

See Also:

• MD Schools Should Reopen, Governor Says
• HCPS 'Will Evaluate The Updated Guidance' On Reopening
• COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics Scheduled For HCPS Staff

Here is the full statement from Harford County Public Schools, issued Jan. 25:

Families will receive a phone call, email (content below), and text message referencing the following information via our mass communications system at 6:00 p.m. today, Monday, Jan. 25, 2021.

Good evening,

Last week, Governor Larry Hogan, State Superintendent of Schools Karen Salmon, and Interim State Health Officer Jinlene Chan announced their expectation that all Maryland school systems return students to in-person learning in some capacity by March 1, 2021. In addition to announcing these expectations during a press conference, they have also published a document entitled Maryland School Reopening Guidance on the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) website.

Harford County Public Schools evaluated the updated guidance from the state on how best to reopen schools in accordance with the Governor’s expectations. Parents/guardians must await contact from their child’s school for their child’s assigned one day per week to attend school in-person. Due to the updated state expectations in the “Maryland School Reopening Guidance,” we are not able to reinstate operations of our Learning Support Centers and our Fall Hybrid Model, which means that previous accommodations for students will not be reinstated.

Our return to in-person learning plan, previously approved by MSDE, is updated and will continue to guide us moving forward. You can review the updated HCPS Continuity of Learning Plan by clicking here.

Please note:

• Students will be assigned one day per week to attend in-person learning.*
• Elementary students will be assigned one day/week beginning March 1, 2021.
• Secondary students will be assigned one day/week beginning March 15, 2021.
• All secondary staff essential to the return of students will be required to report to their physical work sites to perform their required duties on March 5, 2021.
• Meal kit pick-up locations will continue to operate on Fridays. Visit HCPS Food Services on our website for additional information and updates on meal kit pick-up locations.

*Students attending Technology Hubs at North Harford High School will return to their home school effective March 1, 2021. These students will continue to attend in-person, in their home school, on their current daily schedule.

We will continue to adhere to specific mitigation strategies: mandatory face masks, physical distancing, frequent hand washing, and other important health and safety precautions for staff and students. All families will need to complete the following, even if previously completed:

• 2021 Parent Agreement and Acknowledgement of Compliance with COVID-19 Guidelines
• Visit the School/Bus Locator on hcps.org to verify bus transportation information as we anticipate changes may have occurred from previous bus schedules.

We will reinstate weekly COVID-19 information updates on hcps.org. As additional information becomes available, we will share it with you directly as well as post it on hcps.org. I encourage you to watch the Board of Education meeting tonight, Monday, January 25, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. I will discuss this information with the members of the Board of Education.

Thank you,

Sean Bulson, Ed. D.
Superintendent of Schools