Salem Aims For Full-Day Classroom Return By School Year's End

SALEM, MA — Salem Public Schools is the latest district on the North Shore to publicly discuss the possibility of bringing back students five days per week and what that will mean for current social distancing guidelines.

Salem Superintendent Stephen Zrike the district is "looking at how we can design a plan to allow all students to return to full, in-person (learning) five days a week before the end of the school year" and hopes to begin devising those plans after March 18 when students learning remotely will have a chance to opt back in to the current hybrid-learning model for most grades.

"Now there are a lot of factors in that," Zrike said in his weekly Facebook Live session with the school community. "I am not, at this point, establishing a definitive timeline."

Zrike said school coronavirus testing and educator vaccinations will be factors in the timeline and allowed that bringing students back full day will necessitate the easing of the 6-foot social distancing protocols.

"We've maintained a 6-foot distance," Zrike said. "In order to bring more students in for more days, we'll have to go less than that. That's going to involve quite a bit of conversation with our stakeholders."

Salem has offered five-day in-school learning for those in grades kindergarten through second grade since November, but space limits make it more and more difficult as grades up to adhere to social distancing guidelines that have been widely observed since schools reopened across the state in September.

Earlier this week, Marblehead Superintendent John Buckey said with guidance from that town’s Board of Health that the 6-foot distancing is a recommendation – and not a mandate – the School Committee has authorized a group of school leaders to start examining the parameters for expanded in-school learning in that district.

"With (the social distancing) piece now more flexible, I felt that we should begin an earnest process to return learners to more time in classrooms," Buckey said.

The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education guidelines from August state: "DESE's guidance, in consultation with medical experts and state health officials, advises that schools allow for a minimum of 3 feet, and ideally 6 feet of physical distancing whenever possible. This, in combination with other safety measures, will minimize transmission."

The guidance goes on to say that students should be at least 6 feet apart during meal breaks when they are unmasked eating and drinking.

"Some classrooms will be able to maintain close to 6-feet distancing where others might not," Buckey noted in Marblehead.

Zrike said the hope in Salem is that staff will all have the opportunity to receive a coronavirus vaccination by April vacation and that some full-day, in-school learning is key to getting making next school year a more traditional learning experience after what will be nearly two years of disruption because of the pandemic.

"We all believe that getting our students back on a normal routine is important so we can start next year strongly," he said. "We don't have a lot of time to waste."

Salem Schools will begin weekly coronavirus testing at Collins and Saltonstall middle schools on Friday with testing for all students set to begin after February vacation.

Zrike asked families to "be careful with the risks you take" during next week's vacation and to stay with members of their own household as much as possible. He added that anyone who does travel out of state must follow state guidelines and quarantine upon return.

"Nobody should fall into a false sense of security," he said. "The virus is absolutely still here.

"We've patterns after breaks where we see spikes in COVID."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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