The Bristol Warren Regional School District will switch to full distance learning this coming Monday, Dec. 21, and students who return from winter break Monday, Jan. 4, will continue to learn at home through Friday, Jan. 8. Barring any more schedule changes, they will return to the classroom the following Monday, Jan. 11.

The district’s decision to halt in-person learning for three days before and a week after winter break came partly as a result of new directives sent out Monday by the state, and partly out of fears among administrators that the district might not have enough staff during the Christmas week. Those state directives gave districts the option of staying open or closing to in-person learning just before Christmas.

But Superintendent Dr. Jonathan Brice said the decision was easy:

“Increasingly, we already have one school that’s out because of the issue of contact tracing,” he told the school committee Monday night. That is Rockwell Elementary School, which closed last week. “We certainly have another school that is pretty near a tipping point. Between now and next week, we expect ... it’s going to get worse. It is the domino effect — once one starts falling, we’re going to see a lot more of that.”

The state’s directives, designed to help slow the rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus the state is now experiencing, also gave districts the option to bring students back to in-person learning as late as Friday, Jan. 15. However, Dr. Brice said the district is aiming for Monday, Jan. 11, as by then all staff and students who might have been put on quarantine by the start of winter break will have completed their requirement and, if healthy, could return for in-person learning.

Rapid testing at the schools

The district has signed up for a voluntary rapid testing program with the state Department of Health, and upon the return to school anyone who wants to take advantage of the voluntary program may do so once it is set up.

“That testing will be on a routine basis,” Dr. Brice said. “So we can hopefully reduce the number of positive cases or (quarantines required through) contact tracing. The more (testing) we do, the more we get to keep kids in school and keep staff in school. And I think it’s a huge advantage.”

The district’s plan to switch to distance-learning will bring a number of complications, particularly for students whose parents cannot stay with them during the day, students with IEPs and 504 programs, and students who count on breakfast and lunch service within the schools.

Dr. Brice acknowledged the difficulties, but added that the district will provide all essential services during the distance learning period. For those families who will have trouble adjusting to the new at-home schedule, the Child Opportunity Zone (COZ) will operate at each elementary school on a limited basis, helping families of K-5 students who need child care. In addition, Grab-and-Go breakfast and lunch will be available for pickup every day at both the Kickemuit Middle and Mt. Hope High schools. He said the district is working to try to best serve those students with IEPs and 504s, and who need to be in the building for their lessons.

Summer lessons?

At Monday’s meeting, several committee members expressed concern about taking students out of the classroom and the impact it will have on the quality of their education and their home life.

“I am very concerned,” member Tara Thibaudeau said. “I feel the teachers are doing the best they can, but I know as a parent, distance learning is not the best option for everyone.”

Dr. Brice agreed. Already this year, he said, there are about 200 students at the high school who have poor attendance and about 75 more at the middle school, and he has seen evidence of students who performed well in the past declining academically this year.

“Is distance learning tough for some students? Absolutely it is,” he said.

“In the past, we told them and their parents that if you don’t improve, you are going to fail the class,” he said. “I think it is a problem in the midst of a pandemic ... for that to be the message from the schools. So the message instead has been, ‘How can we work with you? How can we help you? How can we try to get you better engaged in the school process?’ ”

Ms. Thibaudeau asked if the district has discussed closing schools completely for winter break, and possibly making up those days through a shorter April vacation or time added at the end of the year. Dr. Brice dismissed that.

“Distance learning is exactly that — It is closing to give the rate of infection and the possibility of staff and students being close contacts ... giving that the opportunity to dissipate. The district’s distance learning window, from Dec. 21 through Jan. 8, he said, “is that window that allows that community spread to hopefully decrease.”

As far as the larger issue of how to help students who do not respond well to distance learning, he said, they are talking about how to make the summer productive for students at all levels.

“The conversation has centered around whether or not we would operate a summer program. I don’t want to call it summer school; but I do believe that we want to have a program that would be enrichment to help students that have been really successful; the students that are sort of holding serve ... and certainly those students that have not been successful, to bring them in.”

“We think that some sort of summer academy is the right idea. The problem is, kids love summer. They like to be outside. There’s a big bay out there and lots of trails. I don’t think we can make it mandatory; we can certainly suggest it to our parents and guardians.”