Faculty and 541 students have begun returning to Interlochen Center for the Arts for the 2020-21 school year, part of a two-week “onboarding” process that includes multiple COVID-19 tests, socially distanced cabins and dorms, and entirely outdoor classes to create a campus bubble staff hope to preserve the entire semester. While Interlochen’s students are the first to return in the area, other districts will soon follow, with Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) sharing more details on how the first two weeks of virtual-only education will work and other schools signaling their intent to start with in-person instruction.

Interlochen staff slated to have face-to-face interaction with students this fall began returning to campus in early August, while non-student-facing staff will continue working remotely through at least the end of 2020. That policy has reduced the number of staff on campus this year by more than 25 percent, according to Interlochen Provost Dr. Camille Colatosti. Interlochen has trained nurses on campus to adminster coronavirus tests and has a partnership with the Broad Institute in Boston to receive 48-hour results, with all staff tested as part of their return to campus (results have all been negative to date).

This year’s class of 541 students – including 40 day students and 80 international students – is only 11 students shy of last year’s record-breaking enrollment of 552, according to Interlochen Director of Media Relations and Communications Simone Silverbush. Students began arriving this past Monday and continued streaming in throughout the week, with classes set to begin August 17. Students were warned in advance not to report to campus if they had any coronavirus symptoms, and are being tested for the virus upon arrival.

Students are separated out on the 1,200-acre campus during the onboarding process while test results are pending, with a maximum of one student per dorm room – each with a private bathroom – or two students to a cabin that normally houses 16. After students have been on campus for six days, they will receive a second test to ensure they didn’t contract the virus while traveling. All classes during the two-week onboarding period will be outside – students will learn remotely in their rooms if there’s a rainy day – and meals will be served “grab-and-go” style from the cafeteria. Once the onboarding period is over, students will continue to meet in small-group settings outdoors as much possible until the weather turns.

Staff highlight numerous other safety protocols that will be in place, including masking requirements, a 24/7 on-campus health services facility featuring a COVID-19 wing with 20 beds, and 10 dedicated cabins for quarantining. To address mental health, Interlochen will hold monthly “reflection periods” that will give students a break from deadlines and tests, offer weekly community and small-group advisory meetings, and provide counseling services via staff and a telecounseling platform. Though visitors are banned from campus, including for performances, the school will host two virtual family weekends and allow virtual family attendance for certain performances.

Colatosti says the school is still tackling the “creative challenge” of how to arrange choral and instrumental performances, ballets, and theatrical productions with masking and social distancing requirements in place. “We’ll be challenged with how many people can be on stage, and we’re not able to do all the partner work, so it’s a challenge in choreography,” says Colatosi, noting that the school still plans to mount nine plays and two full-length ballets (The Nutcracker and Swan Lake) this year. Another challenge: addressing the “porous” part of the campus bubble involving day students, staff, and outside workers like food delivery staff who will be traveling to and from campus. Colatosti says day staff and students have taken a campus pledge to limit their activities off-campus to only essential tasks to reduce the risk of bringing the virus back to Interlochen. “Everyone is very seriously committed to the success of this endeavor,” she says.

Colatosti acknowledges Interlochen is “fortunate” to have resources unavailable to many schools, including funding to test students and staff repeatedly throughout the year and obtain quick results, a sprawling campus on which to spread out students, and a small student population that can be cloistered in a relatively secure bubble. Even then, she notes the pandemic is a “very unpredictable situation,” with some factors always likely to remain outside of the school’s control.

That uncertainty looms larger for other local districts, such as TCAPS, which decided Monday to start the first two weeks of school in a virtual format to get staff familiar with the district’s new online learning system and safety protocols, as well as to assess how other schools reopen.

Students will start school virtually on September 8, with in-person instruction tentatively set to resume September 21; TCAPS’ board of trustees will meet September 14 to make a final determination on whether students will return to campus the following week. Because of the decision to start virtually, TCAPS Executive Director of Communications Christine Guitar says the district has extended its enrollment deadline for UpNorth Virtual, the district’s K-12 option for a fully online learning system, to September 28. UpNorth Virtual, which also starts on September 8, for the most part does not offer instruction from TCAPS faculty, though students in the program have access to TCAPS support staff and extracurriculars. Guitar says the district is exploring opportunities to have TCAPS teachers provide online instruction to students on UpNorth Virtual when possible. But for now, TCAPS teachers are slated primarily to instruct students on the district’s own new virtual platform, Brightspace, when face-to-face instruction is not possible.

With everyone having to start virtually – and uncertainty about exactly when students will return to campus – families can choose to have TCAPS teachers through Brightspace for the first few weeks and make a decision to move over to UpNorth Virtual if they want to continue virtually for the rest of the semester if/when other students return to the classroom. Students will need to manage their time if they have a late start in UpNorth Virtual to ensure they complete all their work by the end of the semester, Guitar notes. After September 28, UpNorth Virtual’s enrollment period ends until second semester, and students will need to stay with their educational platform of choice for the rest of the semester. Schools like Traverse City Central High School are scheduling socially distanced days in late August for school pictures and orientation tours for new students.

Other districts are preparing to return for in-person instruction in September, assuming Traverse City remains in phase 5 of the state’s reopening plan. Districts planning on in-person instruction for reopening include Traverse City Christian School, TBAISD’s Career Tech Center, Grand Traverse Academy, and Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools (GTACS). In an August 6 letter to parents, GTACS Superintendent Michael Buell wrote that the most effective method for the district to accomplish its religious educational mission was “in the unique environment of a Catholic school, with instruction delivered by holy witnesses.” Buell acknowledged that “even with the best-laid plans, we will have children and adults get sick,” but said the district was working with health department officials on preparations to handle those situations, as well as on preventative safety protocols. “I can hardly wait to have our children back in school, where they will make our community whole,” Buell wrote.