Term 3 plans to be announced on Wednesday, January 13,2020.

by Alexis Gutierrez

As DCPS gets ready to release their re-opening plans for Term 3, Petworth News checked in with some of the local DCPS elementary schools. Of the local Petworth DCPS schools, most but not all have finished their Reopen Corps meetings and submitted to DCPS for approval. Some have even held meetings with their parents announcing their plans. Initial reports indicate that each elementary school is taking a very different approach: some are going with a hybrid mode (2 days in-person, 2 days virtual) to offer as many families as possible an opportunity to have in-person learning, whereas others are targeting just specific grades for in-person learning and running a lottery for those seats.

Right before Christmas, DCPS announced the survey results of their latest survey on returning to in-person learning. Of the 10,500 Pre-K to 5th grade families that responded, 49% wanted to stay virtual and 51% wanted to return to in-person.

The demand for in-person learning broke down as 36% in-person learning, 13% CARES classroom or in-person learning, and 2% CARES classrooms.

When the data is looked at by Wards, Wards 5, 7 and 8 have the highest percentage of families requesting virtual learning, whereas Wards 1 and 4 are more evenly split between virtual and in-person learning of some form. The data indicated that families with older kids are more interested in virtual-only learning.

For grades 5-12, only 4,000 families across the city responded. Fifty-eight percent of the respondents preferred virtual-only, whereas 42% preferred in-person learning. Ward 3 was the only Ward with a majority of the families preferring in-person learning.

DCPS Reopen Community Corps have been deliberating on the data for their school as they make recommendations this month on what Term 3 re-opening will look like.

While the reopening plans for Term 2 fell apart quickly due to lack of buy-in from teachers and administrators, there has also been welcome news of an agreement between the Washington Teachers Union and DCPS. The seven-page agreement is posted on the Mayor’s website.

The agreement outlines the health and safety measures that must be in place. Paragraph 36 outlines that the process for determining staffing assignments will be based on teachers volunteering first, and then additional assignments made if there is more demand for in-person instruction.

Teachers can seek reasonable accommodation as allowed for under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Covid-19 Emergency Support Act, Family Medical Leave Act, DC Family Medical Leave Act and the American with Disabilities Act.

DCPS will be holding two town-halls in January to go over the reopening plans for Term 3. Be sure to tune in to learn more on January 13th and 27th at 5pm. Petworth News will report out after each town hall.

Key Dates in January for Families

January 11 – schools begin sending in-person seat offers
January 13 at 5:00 p.m. – Term 3 Community Town Hall
January 18 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (DCPS closed)
January 19 – no school for students and teachers
January 20 – Inauguration Day (DCPS closed)
January 25 – Term 3 schedules available in Aspen
January 27 at 5:00 p.m. – Term 3 Community Town Hall
January 28 – last day of Term 2; your school will share if there will be asynchronous learning due to teacher PD
January 29 – no school for students; records day for staff and teacher PD