Back to class: Finley, Burbank students return to school. Kennewick is next

For nearly five months, Burbank elementary school Principal Ian Yale has been greeting his students through Facebook with his puppet, Mr. Chitchat.

Last week he got to welcome the kids back to school in person.

“We’re trying to figure out what to do now that you’re back in school,” he said. “Holy smokes. So exciting.”

Students in the Burbank and Finley school districts started hybrid classes last week. They are the biggest districts in the Tri-Cities area to start sending students back into classrooms.

Kennewick, the largest Benton County school district with about 19,000 students, starts sending more kids into schools this week. Only a few hundred at-risk students have been attending in person so far.

The smaller districts are bringing half of the students into the classrooms at a time on a rotating schedule, some in the morning and some in the afternoon.

When they aren’t in class, they’re supposed to be learning online.

The hybrid model being considered by the bigger districts is half the students coming into schools two days a week and then taking online classes the other days.

The Richland and Pasco schools districts are still considering if it is safe enough for students to return to in-person learning.

Both school boards meet this week again and have COVID-19 updates on their agendas. And both are surveying parents on their concerns.

The nearly 800-student Columbia School District started last week by bringing students in kindergarten, first, third, sixth, ninth and 10th grades back.

The 900-student Finley School District started with kindergartners.

“Every week, we’re going to get better at what we’re doing,” said Finley Superintendent Lance Hahn. “It’s been a smooth transition. We’re really happy with the way it’s going.”

Students in both districts are getting temperature checks when they go through the door.

Students are wearing masks, employees are hand washing and the tables and desks are spaced six-feet apart.

COVID cases

The move came as the number of new COVID cases in Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla counties continue to plateau, according to state figures.

However, Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla county public health officials, so far, have signed off on the openings.

As long as students in schools wear masks, maintain their distance and wash their hands, the risk to young children of getting COVID is no greater than it would be in a grocery store, said Dr. Amy Person with the Benton Franklin Health District.

Surveys in Finley showed about 50 families weren’t ready to send their students back. The district plans to have a dedicated teacher for the ones who aren’t ready to go back in person.

Otherwise, Hahn and Columbia’s Superintendent Todd Hilberg said most parents have been happy with the change.

Kennewick School Board members have said the letters they’ve received have been evenly divided between parents who want the schools to open now and ones who want the district to wait.

Kennewick schools

The Kennewick School District plans to bring back 104 preschoolers and 152 more special needs students starting this week. The remaining elementary students are scheduled to return the next Monday, Oct. 19.

Assistant superintendents Rob Phillips and Jack Anderson toured schools to check on protective equipment and that staff members are prepared.

Each school is supposed to have plexiglass separating people in the front office from the public, masks available at all of the entrances and hand sanitizer stations scattered throughout the buildings.

There are additional hand sanitizer, disposable wipes and other cleaning materials in the classrooms, as well.

“The building will have that stock of PPE in the building, but when they run low, then the secretary would fill out the order form for PPE, send them to our purchasing manager at the warehouse, and then they would send them to the schools,” Phillips said.

There are a host of various plans in place all aimed at keeping students and teachers protected from the virus.

Phillips, who oversees all of the elementary students, visited with teachers during his tour and asked them about whether PPE was available.

“I’d ask to see their PPE, just to make sure that at least in my mind, that I knew that they had them,” he said. “I would go through that short list, ‘Do you have hand sanitizer? Do you have disinfecting wipes?’

“With only a couple of exceptions, they had everything. There were a couple of times where they thought they had a specific thing, and either they couldn’t find it or they didn’t have it, and the principal took care of that.”

He added that making sure employees know how and where to find safety equipment and procedures needs to a continuous process.

Finley and Burbank

The superintendents for Finley and Burbank said their first week of classes went well.

One of the biggest concerns by parents was keeping kindergartners separated. Hahn said those teachers are some of the most organized in the district and know when the young students are starting to get restless.

They have been taking them outside for breaks without their masks to allow them to run around.

“I haven’t heard a complaint about the kids not keeping them on (inside),” he said.

Columbia had 35 fewer students than it expected show up for classes this fall, a similar drop to other districts around the area and statewide.

Finley had better results. Hahn said their kindergarten classes were down by only 10 students.

The biggest concern facing many of the small districts around the state is not the children, but having enough substitute teachers to fill in when a teacher needs to quarantine themselves, Hahn said.

He regularly talks with other small districts that have opened, including Pomeroy, Dayton and Clarkston.

“If you have two or three teachers go, you have to find subs,” he said. “It doesn’t take many to deplete the pool.”

This story was originally published October 11, 2020 at 1:52 PM.