Jordan Beck | Daily Press Gladstone Area Schools Custodian Judy Frizzell sanitizes surfaces in a room at James T. Jones Elementary Thursday.

ESCANABA — The 2020-21 school year will begin at local K-12 schools next week. Representatives of area school districts said they have been hard at work getting ready for the start of this year — a process which has been complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Escanaba Area Public Schools Superintendent Coby Fletcher said his district is following a plan that was approved by its board of education earlier this month.

“It deals with two major pieces — one is instruction, and the other is really health and cleanliness,” he said.

The district will provide a number of ways for students to learn during the fall 2020 semester.

“We’re implementing quite a few options for parents,” Fletcher said.

Escanaba students will be able to take part in traditional face-to-face instruction, livestreamed classes, self-paced online instruction or a combination of these methods.

The process of developing these online learning methods — which the district has been working on since Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s “Return to School Roadmap” and related materials were released this summer — has not been simple.

“To implement these has taken an immense amount of planning and adjusting, but we felt like it was really important to give our families some choice in how they want to send their kids back to school,” Fletcher said.

Teachers are also being given training opportunities to help them run online classes.

According to Fletcher, health and cleanliness measures covered by the district’s plan include mask-wearing regulations and cleaning schedules for classrooms, common areas and buses.

“There are different degrees of cleaning required for different spaces, and different frequencies at which things need to be cleaned,” he said.

To meet these standards, Fletcher said the district will have to increase the number of custodians working at its buildings.

Though the process of preparing for the new school year has been very different in 2020, Fletcher said he believes the district’s efforts have been valuable.

“It’s work we’re happy to do to be able to ­welcome kids back,” he said.

The Delta-Schoolcraft Intermediate School District (DSISD) has also made some changes in response to COVID-19. Cleaning standards for the district’s buildings have been raised.

“In our career technical programs, we will be cleaning classrooms and surfaces every day throughout the day,” Superintendent Doug Leisenring said.

Additionally, DSISD students will be trained in proper hand-washing and sanitization techniques.

Leisenring went on to say social distancing measures are being implemented at the DSISD.

“We’re going to (have) minimum traffic in the hallways,” he said.

Work is also underway to get ready for in-person instruction at the Learning Center.

“We’re … working on a program to teach our students how to wear a mask,” Leisenring said.

The DSISD’s other precautions will be followed at the Learning Center, as well.

At Gladstone Area Schools, Superintendent Jay Kulbertis said district buildings have been thoroughly cleaned.

“Our custodians have been in all week,” he said.

A district preparedness plan was recently approved by the Gladstone Area Schools Board of Education. For Phase Five of the MI Safe Start Plan — which the Upper Peninsula is currently in — the district preparedness plan describes how the district will offer in-person instruction and some activities while meeting safety protocols.

Topics such as face masking requirements; student hygiene measures; plans for cleaning school buildings; cooperation with Public Health, Delta and Menominee Counties on the potential screening and testing of anyone exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 in the district; and expectations for busing and other forms of student transportation are addressed in this phase of the preparedness plan.

As is the case for Escanaba students, students at Gladstone Area Schools will be able to take advantage of remote learning options.

“I’m really exceptionally proud of the work our teachers are doing to gear up … to meet the needs of their students in the classroom, as well as those joining online,” Kulbertis said.

Since the district’s work related to COVID-19 precautions was largely completed by the end of the week, Kulbertis said its focus had shifted to getting ready for the new school year in other ways.

“It’s just going to now be the normal logistics of school start-up,” he said.