The Bridgehampton School is anticipating approval from the Southampton Town fire marshal this week to begin using three temporary trailers for teacher offices and five of its newly constructed classrooms for educating students, even though the rest of the construction project is still in progress.
That approval would mean Bridgehampton has a tentative date — Wednesday, Dec. 2 — to start bringing back the seventh-through-12th-grade students for in-person learning. Robert Hauser, the school superintendent, said Monday that the district is still evaluating that date and the related logistics.
"I know there has been a lot of concern and a lot of questions from parents as well as students about returning to school," Mr. Hauser said during an online meeting last Thursday dedicated to the reopening plan. "We feel as a district . . . that it is very important that we offer this option for students to come back to school. Many of them have not been here since March 16 when the pandemic first hit. Each one of our buildings, we feel, is very safe, very clean."
Under the plan, the seventh, eighth, and ninth-grade students would come to school two days per week, and the 10th, 11th, and 12th-grade students would be there on two different days per week. Attendance on Wednesdays would alternate between the two groups. The students would switch classrooms for their different subjects, but would have plexiglass barriers and disposable "desk sheets" to use as protective equipment in addition to their masks.
Bridgehampton conducted a survey of its secondary students' families, but did not hear from everyone. In the seventh through ninth grades, 13 said they would be returning, 12 said they would continue with distance learning only, and 24 families had yet to respond to the survey. In the 10th through 12th grades, 15 said they would be returning, 20 said they would continue on the remote system, and seven had yet to respond.
Michael Miller, the school's principal, said during last Thursday's meeting that administrators "believe gaps in learning are going to happen if we continue to be on distance learning," adding, "We're going to do everything we can to support them while they're here."
As of Monday, Bridgehampton has had two cases of Covid-19 among students and one case among staff members since the school opened in mid-September.