Laconia taking small steps to bring kids back to school

LACONIA — Summer is the time when students take a break from school, but this summer is shaping up to be a time when the Laconia school officials hope to get a feel for how they might be able to bring students back into the classroom when school resumes in 2½ months.

At Tuesday’s School Board meeting Laconia High School Athletic Director Craig Kozens outlined a multiphase program designed to get students in shape for sports.

”The idea is to slowly get conditioning back,” said Kozens, who told the board that many students who participate in sports have not had any meaningful athletic activity for months because of the coronavirus pandemic which forced students into remote learning and led to the cancellation of spring sports.

Under the plan, two coaches will be assigned to work with students in groups of no more than 10 for outside activities. Social distancing will be required, and parents who provide transportation will be able to only drop off or pick up their child, and will not be allowed to wait for them.

In addition, each day the students will be asked health-screening questions and have their temperature taken. Initially, the screenings will be conducted by Laconia Fire Department paramedics, Kozens explained.

He hoped the program could start next Wednesday, and would gear up to five days a week beginning Monday, July 6.

As planned, later phases of the program would involve having the students participate in activities in indoor spaces, such as the school gym, then moving up to full scrimmage contests, and ultimately full participation in team sports.

Kozens said that the rolling out of successive phases of his plan would depend on COVID-19 data for the state and Belknap County, as well as guidance from state and federal authorities, and directives from the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association which governs school sports programs.

The School District’s credit recovery program will also be held in-school. About 30 to 35 students will be enrolled in the program, offered for students who need to retake a course to get a passing grade, Assistant Superintendent Amy Hinds said.

“We see this as a pilot program to bring students back into the building,” Hinds said.

Another summer learning program for students who receive special education will be offered remotely, however, because it involves as many as 200 students which Hinds said was too high a number to be accommodated safely given current guidelines designed to curb the spread of COVID-19.

One School Board member, however, questioned why all the students who will be involved in summer learning cannot come to school, and instead will have to rely on remote learning.

“I don’t understand why we can’t get those kids back in school who need it,” Dawn Johnson said. “They need to get back to where they belong,” she continued. “They need more.”

She added school restrictions seemed excessive given the low number of COVID cases in Belknap County and that children are far less susceptible to the disease, compared to other age groups, according to statistics.

Tucker told the board that when school resumes, it will not look like the reopening of school last year.

“We will need to rethink how we do cleanliness, how we will handle food service, and how we provide transportation,” he said.

Tucker distributed an outline of a planning process to reopen the city’s schools.

School administrators are scheduled to meet today to discuss the process.

Under the plan, nine working groups will consider the specific aspects of the plan in detail. An oversight committee made up of Tucker and one representative from each of the working groups will be responsible for developing a plan for reopening based on what the working groups propose.

The working groups are scheduled to meet in early July and again later in the month. They will be reporting their recommendations to the oversight committee in late July. The oversight committee will meet in August to devise the overall plan.