Hamilton Southeastern starts school year as only fully virtual district in Hamilton County

Inside the schools at Hamilton Southeastern, bells rang that the end of class periods and teachers were teaching in classrooms.

But instead of a room full of students, teachers saw their faces on the screen of a computer.

It was a first day unlike any other as the roughly 22,000 kids at HSE returned to classes for the new year — virtually.

According to Indiana superintendent of public instruction Jennifer McCormick, 17 districts in the state originally planned to start the year virtually, and as of Thursday, that number was up to 31 districts in the state. 

HSE is the only Hamilton County district of the six to do so.

Around the Indianapolis area, students started going back to school, both virtually and in-person last week. And as more districts have opened, positive tests for COVID-19 have been reported from students and staff.

HSE parents who spoke to IndyStar said they’re watching to see how virtual instruction will be different than it was when schools closed this spring at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

And parents and teachers agreed that they hope to get back to the classroom as soon as it's safe to do so.

First day at HSE

When second-grader Harper Smith found out that she wouldn’t be able to start the school year at Fishers Elementary in person, she cried.

But as the first day neared, Harper and her brother Ryland, who is a 5th grader at Riverside Intermediate, got more excited, said their mom Sherry Oswalt. On Thursday, they posed for back-to-school photos outside, wearing empty backpacks.

HSE was one of several central Indiana districts that announced a change to its reopening plan, which included an in-person option, and released a new four-phase plan in late July. Students will be in a fully virtual phase until at least Labor Day.

Per the plan, each phase will be at least four weeks and families will have two weeks notice of changes as well as the choice to stall fully virtual.

The district will use its own data as well as data from health officials and the state to determine if the district can move phases. That data includes a 14-day downward trend in positive cases and a daily infection rate below 5% for Fishers as well as an average daily student attendance of 80% or greater.

On Friday, the HSE Board of School Trustees is meeting in a work session with the Fishers Health Department to “discuss metrics to be used for COVID response.”

While the first day of school is filled with introductions and how-tos sessions, parents told IndyStar that they are watching to see how virtual instruction will work this year. Some said they’ve already noticed a difference from the spring when schools closed at the onset of the pandemic.

Per the district’s reopening plan, students in all grades will have both live lessons via Zoom with teachers, which are at a scheduled time, as well as recorded content that they can watch at a time of their choice. 

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Example schedules included in the plan include a 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. day for K-4 students and  8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for grades 5 and 6. For grades 7 to 12, the example schedules are from 8 a.m. to roughly noon with office hours and individual and small group instruction with teachers in the afternoon.

All students will have sessions on social-emotional learning. Students in K-6 have a weekly session on Fridays and secondary students are starting the year with five days of social-emotional learning curriculum in addition to classes.

District spokesperson Emily Pace Abbotts said the first day went well and HSE has yet to hear of any major technical issues outside of the expected hiccups.

Janet Chandler, president of the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association, said the district’s schedule for virtual learning provides more organization than in the spring, and the district also provided additional professional development for teachers ahead of the start of the school year.

Parents said they’ve already noticed that change in structure.

“It’s more like in person,” said Oswalt, who added that the kids have more face time with the teachers and classmates.

For Charron Wright, she said she’ll wait and see if her three kids — a senior and sophomore at HSE High School and a 7th grader at Fall Creek Junior High — are getting the rigor they signed up for.

She’s said she’s concerned about classes like chemistry and 3-D art that don’t lend themselves to virtual instruction. Plus, with the shortened instructional time, she said she wants to make sure they are still learning the entire curriculum especially in advanced classes that have less flexibility to skip content.

“We’ll see how it works out,” she said.

Change in reopening plans

Several parents who talked to IndyStar said they were planning on sending their kids in person before HSE changed its plan.

Wright said she was surprised to hear the plan changed, especially after being a parent representative to the district’s reopening committee. She said the schools need to find a way to implement protocols to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

“We can’t stop it,” she said. “We have to live with it.”

Wright said she hopes things go well at the other districts in the county as a way to show it’s possible to reopen.

Noblesville started Tuesday with a majority of students. Classes start next week at Hamilton Heights, Westfield Washington and Carmel Clay schools and on Aug. 17 at Sheridan Community Schools, all with in-person options.

Sarah Skwire, who has two students in the district, added that she wants the schools to move safely, and said that she thinks the school district may be moving more cautiously than needed, which is understandable.

“It’s hard to have solid answers about safety,” she said. “There is so much that we just don’t know.”

For Shannon Foster, the change to a phased plan was a relief. She said she was nervous about sending her third grader to classes in-person.

"I think this is the best case scenario," she said, "to keep everyone safe."

And the move to a fully virtual start helped ease the fears of the teachers who were not comfortable starting an in-person school year, Chandler said. 

District leaders said they made the decision to start virtually based on safety concerns and the data on the coronavirus from the Fishers Health Department. 

Unlike the other districts in Hamilton County, HSE is the only one that has a city-level health department to work with in addition to county and state health officials, as well as local scientists and medical experts.

On Thursday, Chandler said a majority of teachers were back in their classrooms, teaching to screens, but some were approved to work from home.

One thing that made teachers uncomfortable about going back to buildings was just being in closer proximity to colleagues, she said. 

Pace Abbotts said the district will be working on a case-by-case basis with staff who have health concerns due to the coronavirus so that they can be accommodated when the district moves to in-person learning.

While there may be staff members who didn’t take a personal leave now, that may change when the district moves to later phases of the plan, which include in-person instruction, Chandler said. 

“I think the real test,” she said, "will be if we’re able to go back after Labor Day."

Call IndyStar education reporter MJ Slaby at 317-447-1586 or email her at mslaby@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @mjslaby.