‘We’ve learned a lot of lessons’: How schools plan to navigate a new year

Principal Arria Coburn has embraced the word “pivot.” She despised it during early pandemic lockdowns since it always meant a shift to the unknown. But with a year of pandemic schooling completed, she’s confident that teachers and students at her school can adapt again if necessary. 

“In the event that we do need to pivot, we have so much experience that I’m ready,” says Dr. Coburn, who leads The Springfield Renaissance School, a public magnet school for grades 6-12 in Springfield, Massachusetts. The school plans to open for full in-person schooling on Aug. 30. “We haven’t necessarily started to look at a hybrid plan or a remote plan, but we have it on file.”  

Back-to-school season is here, with school buses revving up and renewed debates over masking, distancing, and other COVID-19 mitigation strategies that many educators and families had hoped to put in the rearview mirror.