Medway Public Schools hope to resume in-person classes this fall, but concern for social distancing in classrooms, buses, and cafeterias makes this difficult.

With years of experience as a middle school principal, current Medway Public Schools Superintendent Armand Pires said he’s never encountered an obstacle to schooling as massive as COVID-19. “Never have I worked as many hours as I did during the school closure,” he said, recalling the initial outbreak last spring. “This is absolutely, hopefully, a once in a lifetime event,” he said.

Pires said the plan to reopen Medway Public Schools has been in progress for months, as he created a “district reopening committee” in early June to determine precautions that “needed to be put in place to keep employees safe” that work during the summer. He also explained that yearly summer programs such as Extended School Year services and the “Summer Adventures” summer camp are taking place despite COVID-19. “Kindergarten Camp” also got approval, made possible by lowering individual class sizes and including more teachers.

Pires, at press time, was working with the Medway School Committee to create a plan that will allow all students to return to school in-person, but the official decision likely won’t be made until two weeks into August. He said, “everyone wants to know now,” but it would be irresponsible to commit to a plan this early when COVID-19 faces him with “a continually evolving situation.” He said “it’s like the longest snow day watch ever,” meaning the school must wait for updates to make an informed decision.

According to Pires, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has required Medway Public Schools to make three plans for what teaching could look like this fall. The first plan is a full return, meaning all students would go to school wearing masks and socially distancing three to six feet. The second plan is a “hybrid model” that allows only half of all students to enter the building on any given day. The third plan is a return to online classes, an option that Pires hopes to avoid, noting that “online classes just don’t replace in-person classes” that allow for deeper connections between students and teachers. He mentioned that even if classes are available in-person, students and their families will have the choice to remain online.

Although the school year could begin later than usual to allow more time to plan, Pires has multiple concerns over how an in-person return will play out. He explained that transportation “will be a big area of challenge,” since school buses are usually packed with students and many families rely on them. He is also concerned about social distancing in cafeterias, as they’re crowded spaces and masks must be removed to eat. Pires suggested that outdoor seating could be available for school lunches, as is the case at Medway High School already. He mentioned that classes requiring students to remove masks, such as band and chorus also pose obstacles for distancing mandates. Due to problems like these, Pires said, “we might have to fluctuate between the three plans” during the school year, meaning nothing is official.

Pires suggested that libraries and gymnasiums can be “used as alternative learning spaces” if a classroom is too crowded to observe social distance. Pires said that “ideally we can have all faculty, students, and staff back,” but he remains skeptical.

Kevin Collins, a Medway High School English teacher for 13 years, said that although the transition to remote learning gave him the chance to create new resources for his teaching, “the simple prospect of returning to a classroom, to a physical space where collaboration can occur and relationships formed, is extremely attractive.” Tara Barrows, a first grade teacher in Medway, shared this sentiment. She said the school is in good hands and she trusts the administration will “put students in the center of everything we do” as a school.