After 2 weeks online, Legacy brings many students back to class

 

Legacy Traditional School had a “stellar” first in-person day, according to its principal.

Dion Koltes, in his second year heading the charter school, said he couldn’t be happier about the transition.

Legacy schools started classes online Aug. 5. About 64% of the charter network’s Maricopa students returned to campus Monday. Enrollment is up about 3% over last spring.

Amid gossip of a possible teacher walkout on other campuses over lack of personal protective equipment, the principal was concerned enough about PPE for classes and teachers, he double-ordered. He had placed a standard order and then followed that with a rush order for classroom items. The rush order came in time, and then Saturday came the full order.

That resulted in an 11-hour day getting classrooms outfitted with sanitizing gels, sprays and other cleaning products.

“Let’s just say I was nervous,” he said.

Children are required to wash their hands every two hours. Staff cleans hot spots even more frequently. Then every four hours – during lunch and again at the end of the school day – the facility team disinfects and uses electric static foggers in each classroom.

There were also nerves involved in getting the day underway.

“We were concerned about the morning drop-offs, and the parents just were amazing,” Koltes said. “I cannot give them enough credit for adhering to ‘Stay in your cars and we’ll get the kiddoes to class.’”

He also praised the teachers for managing the situation.

“The staff today did a great job. I visited every classroom today on multiple occasions, and every little guy had their mask on,” he said. “They were getting adjusted to the new protocol.”

That included wearing facemasks except during recess and lunch. They also had to meet hand-washing demands. That could have been a challenge during PE and recess, but the school had some local help.

“We have a gentleman here who made us the most incredible watering station,” Koltes said. “It has a trough and seven spigots, so we had seven kids at a time who were spaced out across the 10-foot trough. So, after recess or PE, they go and wash their hands with soap and water.”

Lunch was conducted by grade level, with two students per table. Once they finished eating, protocol dictated they put masks back on and line up to go back to class. Koltes said though there were kinks in the system, it was an overall win.

The first week or so will be a matter of sorting out the new normal and getting reacquainted.

“We haven’t seen them for six months, so it was getting them re-acclimated to just being a student. They’re so excited to see their friends,” Koltes said. “We’re giving them a grace period on the dress code for a couple weeks. The majority of the teachers today were just about, ‘How you guys been? What’s going on?’ Because we haven’t seen them since March.”

Acclimating to a classroom means understanding procedures and social distancing, being able to communicate through a mask and other new practices.

Families have until Aug. 28 to tell the school if they want to continue in person or online for the rest of the first quarter. At the end of the quarter, the school will send out another parent survey to find out how many students they will need to accommodate in class.

Last spring, enrollment was 1,340. The current count is 1,372 with a growing waiting list that could take the school up to 1,400. Koltes said the K-6 enrollment has been strong, with “huge, huge” kindergarten numbers. Junior high enrollment is not as strong, and the number attending in class is low.

Koltes said the school lost some junior high students to Heritage Academy.

In-person classrooms have 16-20 students each with social distancing. The mean is 18 students. Koltes said they have not yet worked out capacity limits for facilities when more students want to return to campus.

“If we get 34 in a room, we can’t socially distance,” he said.

Those students learning at home are on the same pacing and curriculum as those in the classroom, but it is different. For the moment, they have live online teaching sessions twice a day provided by district personnel. Once classroom teachers get acclimated and set up to manage their time, they will offer tutoring sessions and online sessions to those students.

That may take a week or two, the principal said.

Teachers get extra prep times throughout the day. This year, Legacy is implementing early release on Wednesdays to provide teachers more time to work out the schedule for teaching online students.

“It’s not going to be the same, but the pacing is the same,” Koltes said. “We still grade all their material, and they have assessment tests. We try to stay even as best as we can.”