Marshall Middle School students, under the guidance of fifth-grade math teacher Rachel Hansen, use tape to mark out a four-lane roadway in the school’s main halls.

MARSHALL — Students in Marshall Public Schools will be returning to class next week – but there will be a lot that’s changed.

In order to meet social distancing standards for COVID-19, staff at Marshal schools have been busy implementing everything from one-way traffic lanes in hallways, to socially distanced desks and carefully scheduled lunch and recess times.

“We had to get creative,” said Park Side Elementary Principal Darci Love.

That was a statement echoed by all of MPS’s school principals this week. Administrators at Marshall schools talked about what class will look like for students this fall, and the precautions being taken to slow the spread of COVID-19.

MPS students will be returning to class next week under a hybrid learning model, said Superintendent Jeremy Williams. That means students will have class in-person, but with extra precautions to ensure social distancing.

“We put a lot of work into the plan,” although the school district was working with a short timeline, Williams said. “It will be nice to have the kids back,” he said.

Because Marshall’s school buildings don’t have enough social distancing space for the whole student body at once, kids will spend part of the week at school, and part doing distance learning.

Younger students will have four days of class and one of distance learning each week, and middle and high school students will have three days of class and two days of distance learning. MATEC students will have enough space to attend class without distance learning days.

Williams said the schedule of the school day will even be different this year, to help accommodate social distancing on school buses.

Students in kindergarten through fourth grade will start school at 8 a.m. and dismiss at 2:45 p.m., while students in grades 5-12 will have class from 8:15 to 3:15. That 15-minute difference will allow time for extra bus routes in Marshall to get kids to school with less crowding, Willams said.

While some of the details of how schools are handling hybrid learning and social distancing differ from building to building, they will all be trying to avoid crowding. Coronavirus can spread more quickly in large groups of people, who are in close contact with each other for long periods of time.

Park Side Elementary

At Park Side Elementary, classroom desks were spaced out farther than usual, to give kids needed social distancing.

“We’ve really done a lot of work in trying to minimize the numbers of students that are together,” in classrooms or group settings, said Principal Darci Love.

Classrooms will now have about 14 or 15 students attending in person each day, she said. Plus, Park Side will be making use of picnic tables from the city of Marshall, to allow classes or lunch periods to move outdoors when the weather is good.

Love said part of the planning at Park Side was to bring together “partner teachers,” so kids go to lunch or recess with a set group of students each day. Classes will alternate eating lunch in the cafeteria and back in the classroom, to allow for more distancing in the cafeteria.

Love said students will also be learning to stay safe through hygiene skills like washing hands. Students will also have their own water bottles to fill instead of using shared drinking fountains.

“We can teach those skills, but make it fun,” Love said.

West Side Elementary

Classrooms will be more spaced out at West Side as well, said Principal Peter Thor.

“We’ve had to move some desks out,” he said. With some students doing distance learning each day, class sizes may be closer to 18 students instead of 25.

West Side was already crowded before students needed to spread out for social distancing. Thor said that posed a challenge in planning for this year. “It’s made use be very creative with the space we do have,” he said. West Side will be making use of outdoor space while they can, with picnic tables as well as outdoor tents from the city of Marshall.

Thor said the West Side gymnasium is large enough to handle P.E. classes, but the cafeteria wasn’t going to be able to accommodate social distancing requirements. As a result, students will be eating lunch in their classrooms.

Thor said West Side teachers and administrators will also be emphasizing safety measures like hand washing.

Marshall Middle School

As school starts next week, two of the major goals for Marshall Middle School staff will be to make sure students have a safe environment, and that students are comfortable using distance learning technology, said principal Mary Kay Thomas. But they’re also having a little fun with it.

One of the first things visitors may notice about MMS is how it now has a four-lane roadway marked out in tape on the floors of the main hallway.

“It’s something so kids can see where they can be,” when safely moving through the halls, Thomas said. Teachers and school staff will be helping students learn the “rules of the road” when they return to class, she said.

A lot of changes at MMS this fall will have to do with traffic control, and avoiding crowding in common areas.

“We won’t have lockers, at least in the immediate future,” Thomas said.

Students can also use different entrances to the school building, to avoid large crowds at the main door every morning. “That gets to happen for both the fifth-grade hall and the sixth-grade hall,” which have doors leading outside near the front of the school, Thomas said.

Thomas estimated that under the hybrid plan, about 480 students would be in the building each day instead of 750. “Instead of having 25 students in a classroom, there will be about 15 to 17. Our low is 13 (students), and our high is 20,” she said.

Marshall High School

MHS Principal Brian Jones said a lot of the changes at the high school were similar to ones outlined by other principals. This fall, the high school will have one-way traffic lanes in hallways and stairwells. Students won’t be using lockers to avoid crowding, and classroom desks have been spaced out or marked off with tape to keep students from sitting too close to each other.

Some class subjects, like band, have had to move into new spaces to allow for social distancing, Jones said. In the theater area, music stands were spread out among the seats at a safe social distance, for students to use.

Jones said MHS still plans to use its cafeteria, but for smaller groups of students than normal.

“We’ve had to change our daily structure,” Jones said, by adding a fourth lunch period, as well as a guided study time, to fit into students’ schedules.

Jones said MHS teachers will also be staggering class dismissals to avoid crowding in the halls during passing periods.

There’s a lot that will be new for both students and teachers this year, and the transition won’t be easy, school administrators said. “We haven’t had students in the buildings since March,” Williams said.

Plus, with the combination of in-person and distance learning, “We’re asking teachers to do twice as much,” Thor said.

Individual students may also have different situations at home, or be responsible for younger siblings during the day, Jones said. “There’s probably going to be a lot more individualization,” when it comes to learning, he said.

Some families have opted to have students learn at home this year — Thomas estimated there were about 40 middle school students learning from home, Thor said about 18 West Side students were learning from home, and Jones said about 35 high school students were learning from home.

However, school staff are going to be working to help kids succeed in a new setting. Williams and other administrators said this year there will be a focus on social and emotional education, both to help students cope and to encourage safe behavior at school.

Even with all the changes, principals said they’re happy to have students back, starting with orientation and assessment days next week.

“Our kids are excited to come back,” Thomas said.

“I’ve been talking to the kids in my neighborhood, and they’re like, ‘When are we starting?'” Thor said.