AGAWAM–  The Agawam School Committee met for a regular scheduled meeting on Oct. 13 where they discussed some students returning to full in-person learning.

The meeting began with citizen speak time, where several residents submitted letters to be read out loud. Dozens of letters from parents within the district were read. The letters varied in subject matter with some parents encouraging the school committee to continue hybrid learning, some parents stating they’d like to return to full in-person learning and a few parents expressing their concern over rising numbers and urging for remote learning only.

Following the letters being read, STEAM teacher Whitney Oberndorf then gave an update on the STEAM Program at the Robert G. Doering School. In normal circumstances updates to programs and activities are given to the school committee in person. However, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the update was given via a video that had been prepared prior to the meeting.

In the video presentation, Oberndorf gave an overview of the program and changes that had been made to the program during the 2020-2021 school year to accommodate the ongoing pandemic. Despite changes being made, she said the program’s goal of “promoting critical thinking skills that integrate into the science curriculum,” was still in place.

She said while it “has been challenging,” thus far during the school year,  “but we have really tried to create activities that allow the students at home and the students in the classroom to excel and engage themselves and immerse themselves in the content.”

Interim Superintendent Sheila Hoffman then gave some brief updates regarding activities within the district. She began by giving a brief update on the district’s newly formed health and safety committees. The committees, which she said were agreed upon with the Agawam Education Association (AEA), were made up of two groups, one of which included grades pre-K through sixth grade and another for seventh to 12th graders. Both committees included “district and teacher representatives,” Hoffman said.

“The goal of these committees is to review the district’s protocols and procedures for COVID-19 and any updates that are made,” she said. Hoffman added that both committees had met within the last week and “district protocols were reviewed.”

Hoffman also gave an update as to indoor and outdoor sport spectator guidelines within the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Conference (PVIC), which Agawam student athletes participate in. She said, “Guidelines state only home fans will be admitted to outdoor games and one home spectator per home player will be allowed at indoor contests. When your student or child is playing at an away site, Agawam parents and friends cannot attend.”

She said the reason for the guideline was “directly related to the state and local health guidelines regarding the number of people that can gather for an event.” She added that the district would stream as many home games as possible for sporting events to the AHS Facebook page, on www.Agawammedia.tv and on local media channels, channel 12 and/or 15.

She said some other schools within “our bubble” would also be streaming their home sporting events online and spectators from Agawam who wished to watch could do so through this medium. Such districts include West Springfield who is streaming their games on the NFHS channel and Westfield who was streaming volleyball and gymnastics matches via Facebook Live on the Westfield Athletics page. Hampshire, Northampton and Amherst are not streaming athletic contests at this time, Hoffman said.

Hoffman then announced that Robinson Park School would still host their annual trunk or treat event, however, due to current world conditions it would be a modified, socially-distanced version of the normal event. The event, which will take place on Oct. 28, will begin at 4 p.m. behind the school.

For her last announcement, Hoffman said the district was currently looking into ways in which the district would be able to add more students for in-person learning. “An administrative sub-group is looking at expanding our four-day, in-person opportunity to students who are not meeting success on their remote days. Our ECC is exploring creative scheduling options to bring more pre-K students in person,” she said. “In addition, the elementary schools conducted feasibility study by grade level just this past week in order to address the concerns we’re hearing regarding our youngest learners in the hybrid model. With adjustments, modifications and some implications we are able to fit kindergarten and first grade students, currently in our hybrid model, full in-person while maintaining six feet distancing.”

She said in order for this to be done, there would need to be certain conditions met. Such conditions included adding an additional section of kindergarten at Phelps and Robinson schools as well as adding an additional section of first grade at the Granger, Phelps and Robinson schools. These additional sections, she explained, would mean the regrouping of both teachers and students. “So students who have one teacher now, they have to switch groups and have another teacher,” she explained.

Other additions needed would include adding an additional bus for the Phelps school, figuring out storage needs at the Robinson and Phelps schools, addressing furniture needs at the Robinson and Phelps schools. Hoffman said at this time, remote only students within the district would need to remain as remote only. “The above listed conditions can only accommodate numbers of students currently in our hybrid model,” she said. Hoffman added her notes by stating that remote-only students would be the responsibility of remote-only teachers “at that level.”

The school committee went into committee as a whole where they discussed the potential addition of more in-person learning. Member Anthony Bonavita clarified that mask rules would remain the same should more students begin to learn in-person, and Hoffman clarified that they would. He then asked about distancing standards recommended by the state for students. Hoffman said the state guidelines for social distancing in the classroom started at three-feet, and at the present time Agawam students were distanced by six feet.

She said should the students be spaced at three-feet rather than six, the district would have to do away with mask breaks that are currently being implemented as students were only able to remove their masks in the classroom when they were distanced at six feet from others. This rule, in turn, would mean the district would have to come up with an alternative plan for lunches at the elementary level as students were currently eating within their classrooms, and would not be able to take their masks off and eat lunch if they were distanced three-feet apart.

When asked by member Carmino Mineo where in the schools the sections would be added, Hoffman said there were some classroom spaces available that were not “assigned as homeroom classroom now,” and there were some other common spaces that could be considered if needed. Additionally, she clarified that the district did not have the space to accommodate all students at a six-foot distance, but could do so if they were spaced at three-feet.

When asked about bringing more students at the pre-k level to in-person learning, Hoffman said the were actively working with the director of the Early Childhood Center (ECC), but size constraints were a concern. Hoffman also said that when children were only distanced three-feet apart it would then be harder to contain the number of close contacts needing to be contacted should there be a case. She said at any time when there is a case of COVID-19 and they are within three-feet of another student, such students become identified as close contacts and there becomes more students that need to self-isolate for 14 days following the positive case.

Hoffman said at this time, it would be a minimum of two weeks before the grades could being in-person learning again. This, she said, was due to classroom preparations that needed to be made and conversations that needed to be had with teachers. Both Bonavita and member Shelly Reed said after the kindergarten and first grade students were brought back to full time learning, they would like to see what could be done not bring students in the second, third and fourth grade back to full in-person learning as well.

After some discussion, each committee member voiced their support to explore additional in-person learning. Additionally, they decided that there was no vote needed on the measure as they had previously voted that Hoffman, along with the town’s health agent, Kathy Auer, would be responsible to make the decision to pivot both forward and backward in the hybrid plan with input from the school committee.