Farmington Public Schools to recommend the District

start 2020-2021 school year fully remote

Farmington, MI --​ ​After much discussion, feedback, and planning, Farmington Public
Schools’ officials will be recommending to the Board of Education at their August 11
school board meeting that the District begin the school year in a ​fully remote learning
model​ that is named​ Learning at a Distance​.

Rationale for this Recommendation

In the MI Safe Schools 2020-21 Return to School Roadmap document, school districts
are required to be in a fully remote learning model in Phases 1-3. Local districts were
given some choice in providing face-to-face instruction beginning in Phase 4, continuing
through Phase 5 and Phase 6. Currently, we are in Phase 4 and Michigan continues to
see an increase of COVID-19 cases.

“We do not feel that at this time that the science and data support a safe return of all our
students and staff for in-person instruction,” stated Superintendent Bob Herrera. “We
also took into account all of the feedback that we have been receiving from our families
and staff in making our decision.”

The key challenges of returning to in-person instruction that led us to this

recommendation include:
 
Challenge  Context 

Health and safety of We recognize that we cannot ensure the safety of staff and students while we are still in a
public health crisis. We can work to mitigate the risks, but we are still concerned that we
our students and staff are not addressing all of the safety needs of those in our care.

Adequate staffing to Risks associated with transmitting the virus has implications with maintaining appropriate
staffing levels and continuity of learning in the event of:
support continuity of
● periodic quarantining of small or large groups of students and staff
learning ● low availability of guest teachers and other staff in the event of staff illness
Phase 4 indicates that community spread is still evident. The gathering of groups of
In-person instruction
students and teachers in small areas continue to pose a risk. Ensuring compliance with all

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 while community adapted routines and structures impacts the level of mitigation we can achieve for staff and
spread is still a risk students.

● Time needs to be given to planning for student engagement in a highly structured

in-person setting of social distancing and wearing facial coverings while also trying
to design developmentally-appropriate classroom routines and instructional
experiences.

The development of screening and quarantining of students and staff requires clear and
consistent guidance across the county by our local health department. At this time, this
does not exist and we need additional time to finalize our practices.
Adapted routines and structures to mitigate risk:
● impacts the ability to effectively implement student-centered best practice,
Providing quality
● is impacting the quantity of instructional minutes for in-person instruction
in-person instruction particularly at the secondary level, and
● impacts the ability to create a developmentally-appropriate learning experience.

“Our world changed practically overnight in March 2020 and our staff stepped up and
continued to provide instruction to our students,” added Herrera.

Now that we have had time to plan, our learning will be much more robust and provide
for more rigor for our students for the 2020-2021 school year. Some of the differences
will be:

● Increased Live Meets with students

● Increased expectations for learning
● Content that will be graded
● Formative and summative assessments will be administered
● Attendance for students will be required per State guidelines

The District’s new Learning Management System (LMS), Canvas, will serve multiple
purposes in the Learning at a Distance Plan, including:
● A space for teachers to establish an online presence, develop instructional
content, provide effective feedback, and collaborate with their Professional
Learning Teams (PLT).
● A digital classroom in which students access instructional content, manage and
submit their work, and engage with their larger class.

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 ● An opportunity for meaningful partnerships for learning among teachers,
students, and parents/guardians.
● A communication tool for teachers, students, and parents/guardians.

The District has been working closely with the Farmington Family YMCA to provide day
care (7 a.m. - 6 p.m.) for our families and staff within a number of our schools. Because
of their nine students to one staff member ratio, they are able to meet the social
distancing guideline and are following all of the other safety measures such as
temperature checks and facial coverings. The Y is working out special pricing for our
families. Once we have all the details of this partnership, we will be sharing it out with
all of our families. We are grateful for our longstanding partnership with the Farmington
Family YMCA and their willingness to help provide a day care solution for those families
that would need this option.

“The return to in-person learning will be dependent on when data supports a safe return
to in-person instruction and when we have clear and consistent guidelines from our
local health department,” said Herrera. “We know that we will not go from offering
remote learning to in-person instruction overnight. We will continue to work on a
phased-in approach in anticipation of returning to in-person learning.”

“As we open our “virtual” doors to our schools on Monday, August 31, I know that we
will be prepared to provide our students not only with a quality education where we can
continue to build positive and supportive relationships with our students and our
families,” assured Herrera.

The District will submit their final plan to Oakland School on Friday, August 14 as
outlined in the Governor’s Plan and post it on the District’s website.

To learn more about Farmington Public Schools, visit ​www.farmington.k12.mi.us​.

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