GREAT FALLS — This week, Great Falls Public Schools is hosting a shortened version of its annual summer music camp, and while its goal is for students to develop skills, this year it offers a chance for teachers to practice COVID protocols before the school year.
School districts have scrambled to fine tune details about coming back and being COVID-safe, but some classes require extra detail, like music classes.
"It's always fun to see, especially the beginners take those first steps on a new instrument,” said Molyneaux. "And it's really good training for my teachers and me to see if any of these plans that we're putting into place actually work. We've got lots of tweaking to do. We're learning a lot. But it will really help us kind of roll into the fall with a few more plans in place."
When the real classes begin on August 26, percussion and stringed instruments may just need some extra cleaning, but singing and wind instruments spread respiratory droplets. Molyneaux said plans are in place to help mitigate that, including masks and air exchange between classes.
“(For wind instruments) we're going to be using bell covers to help out with that and kids will be wearing masks unless they're actually playing the horn, he said. "It looks like if we can keep singing to like less than half an hour at a time with masks on, we're not going to be generating enough aerosols to to make a huge spread in the classrooms."
In addition to the classroom changes, Great Falls students will have far fewer performance opportunities, at least at first. But Molyneaux is optimistic.
"We are doing our best to keep these programs alive. We want them to thrive again down the road. You know, we've got to make some changes here. But everybody's going through this kind of thing. But now's not the time to stop making music. We'll find ways to do this safely. And again, down the road in a year, maybe less, we'll be able to do this just like we were used to before."
