We know one of the main things our members are thinking about is whether and how schools will be reopening this fall. We will be sharing a lot of articles about schools working through this process, just to give some ideas about things your school might consider – good and bad.

This is an excerpt from an article with a lot of great pictures, about schools opening in Hong Kong. You can read the whole article here, and see all of their photos.

One of the main things I took from this – especially when looking at the images – is that there has to be a big infusion of money into the schools to get masks for everyone, to get all that plexiglass, to get those adorable (!) little cubes the kids can put around their desks, to get all the extra sanitizing cleaners, and to pay for the extra staff all of this is going to require. Without some really solid plans to make that happen, in-person school in the Fall seems like a dream more than a potential reality.

“When Hong Kong made the decision to reopen schools in late May, the coronavirus seemed almost entirely under control.

In early June, on the first day of class in Hong Kong primary schools after the coronavirus shutdown, there were new citywide sanitary protocols in place for schools. Things went surprisingly smoothly at Maryknoll Father’s Primary School.

Schoolchildren, in matching uniforms and face masks, lined up to have their foreheads scanned by a staff member wielding a thermal thermometer, then moved on to the next station, where they dutifully held out their palms for a squirt of hand sanitizer. While only masks were obligatory, some students went the extra mile and donned protective goggles.

To prepare everyone for the big day, the government-funded school had sent out videos that demonstrated how each step of the sanitation protocols for arriving students and asked parents to practice with their children….

“With the guidance of CHP, many schools had already been accustomed to measures like monitoring temperature and wearing masks. “The children understand because before COVID, they were used to wearing face masks during flu season as well as having temperature checks,” said Thelema Rigodon, a teacher at Tsung Tsin Primary School and Kindergarten.

SARS also led Hong Kongers to wear masks en masse. So even before the current pandemic, it was not unusual for people to wear masks when feeling unwell to prevent getting others sick. Almost two decades after SARS, residents didn’t hesitate to adopt a daily mask-wearing habit in 2020. In a survey conducted just days after the city recorded its first case of COVID-19 in January, three-quarters of Hong Kong residents said they were already wearing masks to go outside. Less than a month later, almost everyone – 97.5% – said they wore masks when leaving the house.

In May, when the government declared that schools could “resume their classes by phases in a gradual and orderly manner, there was a lot of paperwork to make sure the reopening would go smoothly.” Schools were required to send in their plans to keep students and workers safe. In addition, numerous hefty documents were sent to schools, including 18-page-long instructions about safety measures (for instance, certain classrooms would “need to have the setting of the desks re-arranged” so that children all face one direction instead of facing each other). And the authorities provided a sample letter to send to parents in case a child came into contact with a known coronavirus case.

To help schools cope with the expenses of additional demands such as deep cleans, the authorities disbursed HKD42 million (about $5.4 million USD) in one-time grants to virtually all of Hong Kong’s 2,200 schools, attended by almost 900,000 students…..

“Snacktime was a major operation. First, each student was given a plastic protective barrier that shields their front and sides so they could share a table with three others. Then, they took turns in small groups to be led to the bathroom to wash their hands, lining up in the hallway according to socially distanced dots on the ground. When they came back, a classroom assistant went around the room with a trash bag, and children discarded their masks carefully – touching only the strings – before receiving a squirt of hand sanitizer. Only then were they allowed to eat their snacks.”

You can read the rest of their article here – and I really suggest you browse through all the photos. It gives a great perspective on how much work this is going to be for us all!