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4A Weekend Edition - August 1-2, 2020 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com LOCAL Pre-K in a pandemic Local providers prepare to teach the county’s youngest BY NATHAN BERG nberg@gainesvilletimes.com As schools prepare to return to class in a global pandemic, so too do pre-K providers, and it isn’t easy explaining the importance of social distancing and regular hand washing to young children. While guidance from the state has been thorough, says Pam Forrester, director of Gainesville Academy’s childcare center, put ting precautionary procedures into practice is still going to be a struggle. “Pre-K is going to be a bit more of a challenge this year,” she said. All pre-K providers that fall under the umbrella of Georgia’s pre-K program have been sent guidelines for re-opening from the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL), accord ing to Susan Adams, deputy com missioner for DECAL’s pre-K and instructional support. The guidelines advise pre-K providers on matters including classroom requirements, family participation in the classroom and sanitation suggestions. “What we’ve done is given rec ommendations that follow closely with the CDC guidance,” Adams said. “And then also the guidance that came out from the Ameri can Academy of Pediatrics that are specific for pre-school aged children.” DECAL’s plan allows providers to choose from three instructional models: traditional face-to-face, hybrid and fully virtual, although it recommends strongly that “pro grams place a priority on having students physically present in Pre-K classrooms.” Those who choose the traditional model, like Gainesville Academy, are asked to come up with a plan for rotating classroom materials and supplies to allow time for sani tation and cleaning. The plan also acknowledges that maintaining physical distance of 6 feet among students at all times is unrealistic, but suggests that programs “con sider measures to encourage phys ical distancing.” Those measures include small-group instruction and keeping children as far apart as possible during large group set tings such as “circle time.” It also recommends health screenings upon arrival, to pre vent sick students from ever reaching the classroom. Forrester said Gainesville Academy will be checking students’ tempera tures “before they get out of the car,” and preventing anyone with a fever of 100 degrees or higher from entering the school building. Kelsey Rivera, assistant director at Chestnut Mountain Academy in Flowery Branch, says her school will also be choosing the traditional model. Rivera said the school would be requiring daily morn ing temperature checks, and she added that this year will involve a greater than usual emphasis on teaching students healthy habits, such as hand washing and covering their coughs and sneezes with their arms. But new sanitation and screen ing measures are far from the only challenges pre-K providers will face this fall. One of the largest changes for Gainesville Academy and Chest nut Mountain Academy is the disal lowing of parent volunteers in the classroom. Forrester expressed concerns over how many young children would deal with being separated from their parents for the first time. “The biggest challenges are children that have never been in a formal school setting, getting them into that routine of being away from mom and dad, and then mom not being able to see their class room and not being able to go into their room,” she said. Rivera had similar worries, add ing that separation in some cases would be as difficult for the par ents as it would be for the students. She said Chestnut Mountain Acad emy teachers would be regularly taking pictures in the classroom so parents can feel involved in their students learning process. For rester said she was encouraging parents to participate in virtual assistance, such as video calling the class to read to them. Susan Moon, director of the Childcare Development Center at First Presbyterian Church in Gainesville, said while parent vol unteers are not usually a major part of the pre-K program at First Presbyterian, other precautionary regulations would make instruc tion difficult for teachers. Like the other locations, First Presbyterian has also selected the traditional model, and teachers in the pro gram will be wearing masks and face shields. Moon said that could end up being an impediment to early learning. “Children need to see their teacher’s face,” she said. “When you’re teaching them how to pro nounce words, they need to see your face. Having to wear the mask is prohibiting that.” Teaching young students to adhere to safety protocol with out alarming them has also been an area of concern, according to Rivera. She said that Chestnut Mountain Academy would be focusing on telling students why it is impor tant to distance themselves from their peers and regularly wash their hands using “kid friendly language.” “If they don’t understand why we’re putting all these provisions and measures into place, they’re going to not want to do it,” she said. As the school year approaches, pre-K providers say they’ve been forced to put on a juggling act as they try to keep their students safe while still providing quality early education. And while offering a traditional, face-to-face pre-K experience is not going to be easy, Forrester said it’s a service she’s happy to oversee in an effort to alleviate some of the pressure that local parents have to face. “For the parents, it’s a neces sity,” she said. “Not all of them, but for a big majority of them, it’s a necessity to have availability for childcare.” Pre-K programs at Chestnut Mountain Academy and First Pres byterian Church will be starting on Aug. 17 and Gainesville Academy’s program will begin on Aug. 24. Gainesville to vote on site for new middle school Gainesville Schools teachers remain flexible in prep for upcoming year The Gainesville City Council will vote Tues day, Aug. 4 on annexation and rezoning for the prop erty for Gainesville City Schools’ second middle school, which is intended to alleviate crowding at Gainesville Middle School. The school is set to break ground later this year and open in 2022. It will be near Mundy Mill and Gaines ville Exploration acade mies at the intersection of McEver Road and Gould Drive. Plans include a two- story, 183,400-square-foot building and a multi-pur pose field with field house and bleachers. Primary access for cars and buses is proposed off McEver Road. The school will start off with 750 to 900 students but have the capacity for 1,200. About six acres of the 22.6-acre school site will need to be annexed in to the city, and about 16.6 acres will need to be rezoned from residential to office and institutional. The Gainesville City Schools Board of Educa tion, the applicant for the project, is also asking for a special use approval so an existing rental home can remain on one of the par cels for the property. The Gainesville Plan ning and Appeals Board voted July 14 to approve the annexation and rezon ing. The approval came with several conditions, including screening the development from nearby homes with trees and get ting a traffic study to look at access along Gould Drive. The Council will meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Public Safety Complex, 701 Queen City Parkway. Megan Reed BY NATHAN BERG nberg@gainesvilletimes.com After 35 years of teaching, Cynthia Syfan thought she had a pretty good handle on how to plan for a school year. But as Syfan, a fourth-grade teacher at Gaines ville Exploration Academy, and all other Gaines ville teachers returned to school buildings for pre-planning Wednesday, she quickly came to realize how different this year would be. Preparing for students to return to classrooms in the midst of a pandemic already carried plenty of difficulties, but on Tuesday evening, the GCSS school board announced that Gainesville City schools would be starting the first three weeks of the year remotely, adding another layer of com plication to teachers’ plans and making this year’s pre-planning more of a challenge than usual. “As a teacher, you’ve always got to be flexible,” Syfan said. “But I think now, with virtual schooling and what’s going on, you have to be like an Olym pic gymnast.” It’s been a quick turnaround for GCSS teach ers, who have shifted their focus from decorating classrooms to taking professional learning courses on remote instruction. Lauren Callaway, also a fourth-grade teacher at Gainesville Exploration Academy, said she was glad the announcement came before the start of pre-planning, as it gives all GCSS teachers time to ensure they are fully prepared to teach remotely. “Now that we know for sure we’re starting virtu ally, we can be a little more prepared on the front end, vs. in March,” she said. “I think now, knowing that we’re starting back virtually it gives us a little more time to really help (the students) learn.” It’s a sentiment that was echoed by Superinten dent Jeremy Williams, who said during the Tues day night board meeting that he was hoping the school could “doa 180” in terms of virtual teaching compared to the spring. According to Williams, it all starts with organiza tion in digital teaching strategies across all Gaines ville City schools. “The first thing is just a set framework of what tools are being used by our students,” he said. “Imagine if a parent has three kids in two or three different schools, they don’t need to keep up with six different ways of doing things.” Williams said there were a few online courses that all teachers would be required to take, includ ing an overarching lesson called “Introduction to Synchronous Learning” as well as basic training in cyber security. Other courses, such as a brush- up lesson on Google Classroom — GCSS’s primary online learning platform —will be available for teachers who think they need the extra practice. Beyond that, GCSS teachers will be focusing on Photos by SCOTT ROGERS I The Times Gainesville Exploration Academy teachers Brittany Collins, right, and Cynthia Syfan move desks apart Wednesday, July 29, for COVID-19 safety precautions as teachers prepare for the upcoming school year. Above left: Gainesville Exploration Academy teachers Chloe Thomas, left, and Lauren Callaway gather supplies Wednesday, July 29. Above right: Teacher Mollie Stowe has a meeting via laptop as she and other teachers prepare for the upcoming school year. how to make the remote start to the school year seem as normal as possible for their students. Suzanne Cindea, a third-grade teacher at Gaines ville Exploration Academy, said she was already planning to tailor some of her typical beginning-of- the-year assignments to formats that work from a virtual setting. “For example ‘All about me’ projects instead of doing a project where they bring in items, they’re going to do a PowerPoint presentation or some thing that we can share on a Zoom meeting or something like that,” she said. “Just figuring out a way to meet them where they already are.” With the focus temporarily shifted to remote instruction, GCSS teachers are learning to deal with different challenges than a typical pre-plan ning period would present. As Syfan put it, “it’s most definitely not the same.” Yet despite the new challenges ahead of them, all the third and fourth grade teachers at Gainesville Exploration Academy remained confident that GCSS would guide them in the right direction and have them ready for anything in the coming year. “Working in this system, you’re always going to be prepared for whatever happens,” Syfan said. “I can guarantee that.”
