The Haines Borough School District has developed a tentative COVID-19 mitigation plan for the upcoming school year including in-person classes, small groups of students, mask wearing and a shortened school day.

To help create the plan, the district solicited input from focus groups of teachers, staff and middle school and high school students, as well as experts including Haines Health Center director Lylith Widmer.

Student body president Lydia Andriesen, who participated in the student focus group, said the consensus among her peers is that this past spring’s online classes were an inferior learning setup.

“I know that it was hard for a lot of students to have the motivation to attend Zoom classes,” Andriesen said. “Our quality of learning goes up so much when we’re face to face with classmates and teachers. But we also need to stay safe, so I think wearing masks will be an important thing and adhering to the policies our administration puts out.”

In general, the takeaway from all focus groups was that in-person learning is preferred, but “safety is critically important,” superintendent Roy Getchell said. He said the feedback wasn’t surprising, but it’s important to go through a rigorous, data-driven process to develop a mitigation plan.

“It’s good to be able to reference how we made the decision,” Getchell said. The next step in the process is to survey students, staff, parents and community members before the district finalizes its plan.

For now, the proposal is to hold the majority of classes in person between 8:20 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. for all grades except kindergarten. Kindergarteners will be divided into morning and afternoon classes. In past years, the school day ended at 3:20 p.m.

“Compressed-day schedules are being used in districts like Anchorage and the Mat-Su,” Getchell said. “They reduce the amount of time children are together and give custodial crews additional time to go through and sanitize things.”

Getchell said in-person classes may be augmented with a limited amount of online learning, but for now, the plan is to have the vast majority of schoolwork take place in the building.

“We heard loud and clear the importance of having instruction in person,” Getchell said, adding that it’s critical for student learning and also for parents, who will have an easier time returning to work.

Extracurriculars like sports will take place this year although, at present, the logistics are unknown.

“I feel confident saying that as long as our doors are open, we will have (extracurricular) activities,” Getchell said. He said decisions will need to be made later about details, such as whether sports teams will travel.

Limiting the number of people students come into contact with throughout the day is another piece of the district’s plan.

Getchell said students will be kept in the same small group throughout the day, limiting each student’s close contacts. Close contacts are defined as anyone a person comes within six feet of, for 10 minutes or more at a time. Limiting close contacts will be critical if a student tests positive for COVID-19, allowing a small group of students to isolate instead of the entire school, Getchell said.

Other features of the proposed plan include requesting that parents keep children home if they are sick, conducting daily temperature and symptom checks at school, and purchasing personal protective equipment.

Getchell emphasized that the mitigation plan is an ongoing process.

“Where we start doesn’t mean that’s where we’re going to end,” Getchell said, adding that the plan will require communitywide cooperation.

State-issued recommendations for the upcoming school year distinguish between low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk environments, depending on the prevalence of COVID-19. At present, Haines falls into the medium-risk category with a “low to moderate level of community transmission.” The current mitigation proposal complies with guidelines for this category.

If Haines reaches a point where there is widespread COVID-19 transmission, a high-risk environment, the school is likely to return to online classes, Getchell said.

The Haines school year begins Aug. 18.