Bellingham Public Schools announces when some students will return to classrooms
Bellingham Public Schools will bring its youngest students and those who need more help back for in-person classes starting Nov. 2, Superintendent Greg Baker announced Thursday, Oct. 15.
It will do so under Whatcom County Health Department guidance to school districts that was updated on Monday, Oct. 12, according to Baker.
“We continue to recommend a cautious, slow phased-in approach to resuming in-person learning, and recognize the challenge to providing a safe environment for the critical educational and developmental opportunities and support services that children need and that schools must provide,” Greg Stern, Whatcom County health officer, wrote in that updated guidance.
“We anticipate that COVID-19 infections will occur among students and staff of schools,” Stern added, “and it is the effectiveness of the measures taken to suppress transmission within schools and our communities that will allow us to sustain safe operations of our schools and businesses.”
Baker said the school district is proceeding carefully.
“We intend to move forward with deliberate care,” Baker said.
Bellingham Public Schools becomes the sixth school district in Whatcom County to bring some students to school buildings to learn in person. Only the Mount Baker School District has yet to announce what it will do, although the matter is being discussed at the school board meeting Thursday night, Oct. 15.
At 11,094 students, Bellingham is the largest school district in Whatcom County in terms of enrollment.
All seven of Whatcom County’s school districts started the school year in remote learning.
Here are Bellingham’s plans so far for bringing this group of students back to school buildings:
▪ Kindergarten students will return for in-person instruction beginning Nov. 2.
▪ First grade will return to in-person instruction starting Nov. 12.
▪ Kindergarten to second-grade students who receive special education services in the district’s Life Skills and BRIDGES programs will return to the classroom starting Nov. 2.
▪ Life Skills and BRIDGES students in third to fifth grades will return Nov. 12.
The on-campus schedule for kindergarten, first grade and special education will be 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
Students can come to school for four days because of the small class sizes, Baker said in the announcement.
Baker said the district was finalizing details, acknowledging that families would have questions about lunch, recess, transportation and personal protective equipment.
The district also said it will open preschool programs in the coming weeks, and will send those details to families soon.
Like school districts in the rest of Washington state, schools in Whatcom had to suddenly switch to online learning after they were closed in March to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is an exciting milestone,” Baker said. “We are looking forward to welcoming more staff and students back to our schools, and we are committed to being safe and smart to mitigate risks.
“While many of us have been working and learning remotely since March, it is important to remember that we have staff and child care providers who have continuously worked in our buildings, and they have shown us that with proper protocols and risk-mitigation plans, we can do this well,” Baker said.
This story was originally published October 15, 2020 at 2:58 PM.
