BOURNE – Bourne Superintendent of Schools Kerri Anne Quinlan-Zhou has released details on potential back-to-school plans for the fall.
At a recent meeting, Quinlan-Zhou stressed that while the district has not decided on any specific plan just yet, the details had to be made clear.
Completely in-person, completely online, and hybrid formats were introduced. Plans have to be submitted to the state for consideration.
If Bourne students are to return to school with the utilization of remote learning platforms, Quinlan-Zhou added that it will change compared to the spring, as those sessions were developed in an “emergency.”
“We’ve learned a lot,” the superintendent said, “and we’re ready to do things differently.”
Remote learning could be utilized in a number of different ways, whether it is in a hybrid format or if families feel more comfortable with their students starting the year at home.
Quinlan-Zhou and other school officials within the town have realized that regardless of what approach is taken initially, bringing students back into classrooms has to be in phases.
“We can’t have our children at home one day and then, all of a sudden, just coming back into school, with school looking so, so very different,” she said.
Quinlan-Zhou said new state guidelines have lowered the minimum amount of daily school sessions by 10 to 170, which could allow for a so-called “teacher’s academy” and student transitions in order to make things go as smoothly as possible at the start of the year.
In-person lessons will have to start through a hybrid model, Quinlan-Zhou said.
The first day of school for the district was also pushed back to September 16.
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