'Moving target': Schools deal with new plans, Trump demands

With little more than a month before millions of U.S. schoolchildren go back to class, much is still up in air - and t just because of surging number of coronavirus cases nationwide.

Last week, President Donald Trump and his ministration demanded schools fully reopen right away, calling for new guidance from federal health officials and slamming schools that want to bring students back for only a few days a week.

At same time, some states are just w issuing ir own directives, and school district leers say y expect those guidelines to be revised again before classroom bells ring.

While re's indication school ministrators are changing ir plans yet because of latest word from White House, y are working on multiple reopening scenarios. Those cover everything from where students will eat lunch to navigating online learning.

Here is a look at what several school districts are planning and discussing.

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NEW DANCE

Like many schools, Forth Worth Independent School District in Texas will give parents a choice between in-person and remote learning. So far, about 40% have opted for virtual school, said Clint Bond, district spokesman.

district is designing its plan with guidance released by Texas Education ncy on Tuesday, but ministrators are paying attention to debate in Washington and waiting to see wher any new rules or clarified guidance comes from Centers for Disease Control, Bond said.

“It hasn’t caused us to do anything right w,” he said.

Schools will just to allow for social distancing depending on number of students who opt to attend. Among considerations: Plexiglas separators for multi-student desks, separating individual desks and even using gyms, cafeterias and auditoriums as s distancing students.

“This is a dance we’re learning as we go,” Bond said.

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HOLDING PATTERN

In suburban Cincinnati, Lakota School District’s reopening framework has four different outlines, from nearly all students returning to ir classrooms to entirely online instruction.

While intent w is for classrooms to reopen fully next month, Superintendent Matw Miller’s mess to parents has been this: “What I’m telling you w could change in an hour.”

district’s decisions, he said, are being based on vice from education and health experts, t politicians. A lot of what’s coming out of Washington and state capital isn’t helping, he said.

“It just puts us in a b situation because we kw how polarizing this can be,” Miller said.

For w, district is “in a holding pattern” while it waits to see if re is any new guidance, he said. "This is probably going to change two or three times before school starts.”

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TWO APPROACHES

All students in Tennessee’s second-biggest district will start year virtually, an anuncement me Thursday on heels of Trump’s threat to hold back federal money if districts don’t open ir buildings.

Metro Nashville Public Schools Director rienne Battle said students won’t return to classrooms until at least after Labor Day.

“This will allow social distancing, mask mandates and or measures to take effect and reduce spre of COVID-19 before tens of thousands of students and staff return to our schools,” she said.

Nashville has seen some of its worst daily totals for COVID-19 confirmed cases in past week.

In rastern Tennessee, schools in Sullivan County are on schedule to fully open as long as coronavirus cases don’t rise, said David Cox, director of schools.

district is working off a plan it devised with local health officials and is modeled after Nashville district's plan, he said. “I don’t think any plan is rigid,” he said.

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LUNCH LIMITS

Davis School District, just outside Salt Lake City, is working to reconfigure its classrooms to allow more between students, but that's proving to be a challenge.

“You kw, we don’t have ability, unfortunately, to move our classroom walls,” said spokesman Chris Williams.

re will be sal bars at lunch and students will longer be able to spoon out ir own food servings in cafeteria. Lunches will be “grab-and-go,” eaten during multiple periods so fewer students are mingling in cafeteria.

district, he said, hasn't altered its plans because of Trump ministration's recent statements, but it w will require masks after Utah Gov. Gary Herbert anunced a mandate.

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MOVING TARGET

“It’s an ever-moving target,” Superintendent Chris Knutsen said about reopening framework for Florence Unified School District, souast of Phoenix.

He, too, said Trump’s comments haven’t affected district's intentions, but he does want more guidance from state officials, especially on wearing masks when social distancing isn't possible in classrooms or on buses, he said.

district, which has students coming from across 1,000 square miles, can't reduce capacity on its buses. “We would have to run our buses 24 hours a day to try to get our kids back to school,” he said.

Classrooms pose a similar problem, trying to desks six feet apart, Knutsen said.

“So you put masks on everybody on bus and in classroom and you try to go back to school as rmal,” he said. “So, I don’t kw. I mean, it’s a mess.”