BCPS Plan For In-Person Learning Coming By November 10

BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — By Nov. 10, the superintendent of Baltimore County Public Schools must present a plan for prekindergarten through second-grade to return for in-person learning.

Board member Russell Kuehn proposed directing the superintendent to present this plan, and it passed unanimously.

According to his proposal, in-person learning would start by Nov. 30 for the school system's youngest students. There would be a hybrid option for those who do not want to come back in to school physically.

In addition, School Board Chair Kathleen Causey ordered the creation of an ad hoc committee to survey parents and staff on the return to in-person instruction after one board member expressed concern.

"There is a mental plan, but in terms of actually having spoken to parents, getting the parents to say yay or nay and processing which teachers are coming back," board member Cheryl Pasteur said, "—all of those things that need to be done ... need to be done in the next week." She also said she "had a problem" with only giving teachers limited options.

"I don't think that's fair," Pasteur said. "They ought to be given a wider berth."

Causey appointed fellow board member Erin Hager, Ph.D., whose job is creating surveys for the University of Maryland School of Medicine, to chair the committee surveying people on reopening. She issued that direction after Hager said she was "disappointed" by a survey on virtual learning the school system released this week.

Superintendent Darryl Williams said the school board in July requested that survey after he asked for a virtual start to the school year, to gauge how learning was going in the first semester.

Next Williams said planners would provide options for teachers and families, including mitigation strategies, to enable younger students to return for in-person instruction if they choose.

"We will have a plan to be presented by Nov. 10, and again we will work with our design team, our principals, our unions and stakeholders, our parents, to try to bring back small groups of students at the designated grades of pre-K to two," Williams said. "We have work to do, so thank you."

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