With the start of classes less than four weeks away, Northampton Area School District’s 2020-21 Continuity of Learning and Health and Safety Plans will be considered for a vote 6:30 p.m. Aug. 10 by NASD Board of Education in the cafeteria of Northampton Area Middle School, 1617 Laubach Ave., Northampton.

The meeting is open to the public. Face masks are required, and social-distancing protocol will be followed.

Schools were placed in lockdown March 13, when laptops were distributed for distance learning for NASD’s 5,500 students, following Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s executive order to close public and charter schools. This was extended through the end of the 2019-20 school year in the commonwealth in an effort to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik and NASD Assistant Superintendent Robert Steckel, pandemic coordinator for NASD, are expected to present the reopening plans to the school board Aug. 10.

A draft of the 40-page plan was emailed to parents and guardians July 29.

“Everything and anything in there will be about the start of this coming school year, from how we are going to be cleaning the buildings and cleaning the classrooms, to what happens if a student or a staff member is presumed to have COVID-19 and they’re in school - the transportation, face masks, everything related to where we’re going this school year,” Kovalchik said in his July 27 video chat.

The yellow academic plan, or plan B, was described as a hybrid approach by Kovalchik.

Plan B was presented, along with two other plans - the green plan, or plan A, and the red plan, or plan C - at the July 13 school board meeting.

Kovalchik is expected to post his next video chat Aug. 11 on the NASD website to update parents and guardians about reopening plans.

According to the yellow plan, students in Northampton Area High School and NAMS are to attend school in person two days a week when the 2020-21 school year begins Aug. 31.

Students in grades 6-12 would attend in person Tuesdays and Thursdays or Wednesdays and Fridays, based on an alphabetized system of the first letter of their last names.

On days when not attending in-person classes, secondary school students would take classes online. All secondary school students would stay home Mondays. The schedule also applies to vocational-technical school students.

Students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade are to attend classes in person.

Here’s what students are to bring to school:

• Chromebook, supplied by the district, with required carrying case

• Face covering

• Hand sanitizer

• Water bottle

Here are health and safety measures:

• Parents and students are responsible for taking temperatures, monitoring symptoms and reporting suspected cases and contacts.

• Solid face coverings are required in classrooms when social distancing is not feasible and in all communal areas and hallways and on buses. One cloth mask will be provided by NASD.

• Alternative lunch locations (gyms and classrooms) will be used. Cold lunches will be served to start the year.

• Some hallways and stairwells will be one way. Lockers will not be used. Transitions between classrooms will be limited (elementary) and staggered (secondary).

• On buses, students will be seated one per seat. Face coverings will be required.

• Staff and students will be trained in COVID-19 mitigation strategies.

• Visitors and volunteers will be limited to emergency/urgent situations and essential services.