The Bellevue School District and Bellevue Education Association (BEA), the educators’ union, released the full memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the plan for bringing back all students for hybrid learning and the schedules through the end of the year.
You can read the full MOU here (PDF).
This MOU marks the end of more than a year of important, challenging negotiations that tested relationships and demonstrated the very real divides that can occur within a community. We believe this MOU is an important step in moving forward, refocusing our efforts on our students and family, and bringing us back to our schools, places that are special to all of us.
The MOU is a compromise. We know many students, families and staff wanted to return to full-time in-person instruction. We know many in our community also wanted to continue in a remote learning model. The following answers some of the main questions we have received about the MOU.
What are the key components of the MOU?
The MOU for grades 6-12 includes two to three days a week of in-person instruction, as well as time for dedicated time for social emotional learning. Educators will shift to spending their days back in our buildings. Every student will participate in a social emotional lesson taught by a teacher each week. This time is meant to build community, re-establish relationships with educators and provide opportunities for peer connections. Students have been craving these supports for the last year.
The MOU also includes scheduled intervention and extension blocks for learning every afternoon. Educators provide flexible scheduled intervention time for any students with a D or F, extended learning for any student individually and in small-groups, and/or whole class instruction.
Does the MOU meet the Governor’s requirement for in-person instruction?
Yes. For all students who wish to attend in-person, our average weekly is 30 percent of instructional hours (9 hours a week). As a summary, the below table shows the instructional hours for all three levels of students.
Instructional Minutes/Hours Per Week
|
Pre COVID Hours per Week |
30% of Pre COVID | In-Person Plan Hours per Week | In-Person Plan % of Pre COVID | |
| Elementary | 28.2 | 8.45 | 10 | 35% |
| Middle | 30 | 9 | 9.1 | 30.3% |
| High | 30 | 9 | 9.1 | 30.3% |
How does the 3-foot physical distancing change impact BSD
The public health change of reducing the 6-foot physical distancing to 3-feet in classrooms (not in lunchrooms and other common areas) did not allow for BSD to expand in-person hours. BSD has a larger percent of students wanting to return to buildings than some of our surrounding districts, and to accommodate all our students the 3-foot rule change would not have granted us considerable more time in-person.
However, the 3-foot rule will help us better plan for what we hope is a full re-opening in the fall.
For more information on the 6-12 schedules, see this Video that explains the secondary schedule