The Henrico School Board work session begins at noon, but don't expect a vote on back-to-school plans right away. The first order of business will be a public forum, expected to have more than 30 speakers, each with 2 minutes of available time.

The board then will go into closed session for an unknown period of time. Sometimes this lasts 15 minutes, sometimes several hours. Then the board will vote on administrative appointments and personnel items before discussing and voting on a back-to-school plan.

HCPS librarian Desiree Hopkins, who formed the HCPS Back to School Safely Facebook group, tells the board that if school resumes in person "staff and students will get sick, some will have long-term disabilities as a result and some will die - we reject that outcome.”

Says Varina HS teacher Jimmy Lincoln: "I'm here to ask everyone in this room a simple question – which one? Which teacher? Which instructional assistant? Which father? Which auntie? Which member of our food service staff? ..I want to know which life we are willing to sacrifice."

Speaker Julie Stribling, mother of three children, says it shouldn't be difficult for the school system to provide options for those who want their children to send to school "unless there’s another agenda."

Speaker Yael Levin argues for a choice for those who want in-person learning.

“The goal of the shutdown was never to eradicate the virus – it was to flatten the curve. . . That goal now has been achieved.”

A speaker with two children in Henrico schools says she grew up in poverty with an alcoholic father and teachers, friends and coaches changed the course of her life.

“Choosing 100% virtual is choosing isolation for the children who are at risk," she says.

The presentation School Board members will receive later this afternoon suggests that any of three back-to-school proposals – fully virtual, full-time in-person or a hybrid of the two – will cost the school system nearly $30 million.

The primary reasons for those expenses, according to the presentation: health monitoring and cleaning protocols; teacher/student/family supports; PPE; transportation and childcare.

Says a Henrico father, arguing for in-person learning: "Why pay teacher salaries to replicate what Khan Academy and others already do for free?"

Henrico firefighter Richard Sullivan says CDC Director Robert Redfield indicated that he would allow his grandchildren to go to school.

“If it’s good enough for his grandchildren, it’s obviously good enough for ours.”

Radiologist Shep Morano says a fully virtual plan will hurt the most at-risk children, who need in-person learning.

Not sending students back "will have ramifications for years to come,” he says.

A woman with a rising kindergartner: “A vote for virtual learning only is a vote against equality. A vote for virtual learning is a vote against science."

The public comment portion of today's meeting has ended with fewer than 30 speakers. The board has now entered closed session.

By my count, 18 speakers who addressed the board supported the concept of a choice for in-person learning while 7 others supported a fully virtual plan.

The work session has resumed, and the board is about to hear details about possible back-to-school options. Says Superintendent @AmyCashwell, who has recommended a fully virtual approach for 9 weeks: "Here’s the truth – this isn’t the recommendation I hoped to the making today."

Cashwell says her plan is a recommendation that prioritizes the safety of staff and students, while conceding that virtual learning will not replace in-person learning.

The school system's newly redesigned virtual learning plan will provide "care, experience and expertise," Cashwell says.

HCPS Chief of Staff Beth Teigen is leading the discussion of the HCPS back-to-school plan. You can download it and read along here: https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/henrico/Board.nsf/files/BRSN4J54D3E4/$file/Item%206.01%20-07-23-2020.pdf

Teigen: The school system's initial survey, conducted in late June and early July, was valuable at the time but then as things changed, more teachers and staff members began expressing concerns about a potential return.

Even at that time, only about half of HCPS staff members said they felt comfortable returning to school in person, Teigen says.

After the survey ended, "parents and teachers have reached out since and indicated that they are more hesitant now [to return to school in person] and would change their responses," says HCPS Chief of School Leadership Ingrid Grant.

(We're on page 9 of a 43-page document, if you're wondering how soon a vote might take place.)

Grant says a majority of secondary teachers (middle and high schools) expressed concerns recently about returning to school for full-time, in-person learning.

As I reported Monday, special education opportunities may include in-person learning for some English learners, students with IEPs, pre-K-3rd grade students and others, as determined by their teachers and families.

Grant is now discussing the fact that the school system will have a laptop or tablet available for every student in the school system, which I wrote about yesterday here: https://www.henricocitizen.com/articles/purchase-of-10000-computers-means-henrico-schools-now-has-one-for-every-student/

A lot of parents were not big fans of the school system's Edflix virtual learning program this spring. School officials have spent the past few weeks explaining the ways in which the new virtual learning plan will be much superior.

A big change: Goodbye Edflix, hello (again) Schoology. The school system will make Schoology its gateway to student learning in an effort to eliminate the hodge-podge of various programs and log-ins required this spring.

A number of virtual adaptive resources, like Achieve3000, will be in place to allow students to complete work on their own at appropriate levels. (The programs will adapt to their skills and provide appropriate exercises.)

For those following along, we're likely at least 20-30 minutes away from a vote. There will be discussion among board members following this presentation, and then each one is likely to make a statement before voting.

HCPS teachers will receive a two-part training about how to best use the Schoology platform in a virtual setting, Chief Learning Officer Lesley Hughes says.

These health practices will be in place whenever in-person school occurs.

New HCPS Pupil Transportation Director Jim Ellis says that with new guidelines in place, students will be able to sit one per seat on school buses whenever in-person school returns, and siblings may sit together on a seat.

Buses will be disinfected after every run, Ellis says. Drivers and students must wear masks at all times unless they have a medical reason not to.

"Sneeze guards" (plexiglass shields) will be installed at all front offices.

Water fountains in schools will remain functional but no one will be allowed to use them, according to Lenny Pritchard, HCPS chief of operations.

In a wide-ranging announcement, Pritchard also says that no outside groups will be permitted to use any Henrico County public schools during the 2020-21 school year. This impacts churches, youth sports organizations and others.

HCPS Health Supervisor Robin Gilbert: "We have ordered needed supplies to prepare for reopening our schools but have not yet received these supplies.”

Henrico Health Director Danny Avula is now addressing the board

"There is no way to create a no-risk situation," Avula says. "Whenever we return to school, whether it’s now or next quarter or next year, the process will be, how do we do the best risk-benefit calculation?”

Low-income and at-risk children will have a harder time participating in virtual learning, Avula says, but adult employees of the school system who are more susceptible to COVID-19 will bear the brunt of in-person learning risks.

Tuckahoe District board member Marcie Shea asks Avula whether the proposed 10 HCPS staff members working with health department officials to conduct contact-tracing for all 72 schools is sufficient; Avula says yes.

Avula says many test results are now taking a week or more to return, instead of 2-3 days as had been the case earlier this summer. The state lab still produces results in 2-3 days, though, he says.

Avula suggests that the impact of more testing nationally – and a higher need for it in areas with major outbreaks – has created a ripple-effect that extends to Virginia and other states that aren't in crisis situations.

Shea: School officials need clear metrics to determine when it's ok to reopen schools.

Avula: It's difficult to know which metrics are best to use from one region to another. Must make contextualized decisions for individual communities.

Avula: The rest of the world uses 3 feet of distance as a standard to protect against COVID-19 transmission. "Distancing itself is not the remedy" but it is part of the solution that includes masking.

Shea asks how officials should differentiate between flu and COVID symptoms in the fall.

Avula: Parents must be more diligent about screening children and themselves and must be willing to keep kids at home if they show any symptoms.

Avula suggests that the risk to employees working around younger children is smaller than it might be for those working around older children.

Avula says he would anticipate more respiratory and circulating disease in the fall, during traditional flu season.

Avula: “The reality is every 2-3 weeks we see a new body of data” about COVID-19. For example, it's now believed that people generally spread the virus during the first 10 days they are infected, whether they are symptomatic or not.

Brookland District board member Kristi Kinsella asks Avula directly whether he would choose fully virtual, fully in-person or a hybrid model for his children, who attend Richmond schools.

Avula: "I am not really worried about our kids developing disease. We have really limited contact" with others outside the family.

Avula says to mitigate transmission during lunch at school, officials should follow protocols for social distancing and a small number of students in the same area.

Avula: Only about 5% of COVID transmissions occur from contact (i.e., someone coughs on a surface, another person touches it and then touches his eye).

Avula says presence of soap is what breaks down the virus, so water temperature is not significant.

A look at the three options being considered by the School Board.

Chief of Staff Beth Teigen says the school system is working with @henricogives to plan for child care options for the K-5 children of staff members and with the YMCA, Henrico PAL and others to provide full-day options for families in the community.

The presentation is now complete; board members have the opportunity now to ask questions of school officials.

Three Chopt District School Board member Micky Ogburn asks about the school system's survey of families and notes widely varying rates of response (from 50 people in the Laburnum ES community to 442 from the Rivers Edge ES community, for example).

HCPS Director of Communications and Community Engagement Andy Jenks indicates the system used multiple direct emails and promotion through newsletters and social media, as well as through local news coverage, to publicize the survey.

Survey responses generally were higher in the Far West End and lower in Eastern Henrico.

Shea asks what changed between last Tuesday's community meeting, at which Cashwell announced consideration of a full-time in-person plan, and Monday, when she recommended a fully virtual plan.

Teigen: Percent positivity statewide had risen to close to 7% (from 4.5% at the beginning of Phase 3), and input from staff members was suggesting many were not comfortable returning in person.

(In some personal news, lunch plans have now officially turned into dinner plans.)

“We need to figure out creative ways to capture data if we know historically that response rates from certain districts are not great," Chair Roscoe Cooper, III says, referencing the survey results.

Board members now are taking turns asking questions about each of the major categories of today's presentation.

Pritchard says that sneeze guards will be installed in cafeterias and other higher-traffic areas as possible.

Officials hope that offices and school counseling areas will be fitted with sneeze guards by September.

Varina District board member Alicia Atkins asks if nurses' offices could receive sneeze guards before counselor's offices; Teigen says that since nurses will be wearing PPE, the thought was that they would not need them initially. Atkins says she's heard from some who want them.

Cashwell and Teigen indicated that some safety items they ordered were supposed to have been delivered by now but haven't been; it's likely that not all will arrive by September. They attribute it to an increased demand nationwide, particularly other areas with major outbreaks.

Teigen: There will be random temperature checks of students and staff members during in-person learning.