The Fairbanks Board of Education has voted to remain in a hybrid model through at least the middle of January.
At a special meeting, the Fairbanks Board of Education voted unanimously to move to what it calls, “Learning Level Two” beginning Nov. 30 and through at least Jan. 18.
“This is a balance of academic, social, emotional health, safety and financial considerations,” Superintendent Adham Schirg told the board.
He said Learning Level Two, “provides an additional level of safety mitigation across our classrooms.”
“This allows our in-person education to continue to some degree while providing an additional barrier against transmission and quarantine within the classroom, transportation services and other school spaces,” Schirg said.
He said this provides the best option to allow some level of in-person learning and maintain “consistency through the holiday season for our families.”
Last week, Fairbanks High School returned to Learning Level Two. Fairbanks Elementary and Middle School will remain in Learning Level One for today and Tuesday.
In the Learning Level 2, half of the students in the building Monday and Tuesday and learning remotely the other days while the other half of students are in the building Thursday and Friday and learning remotely the other days.
Administrators said students will return to the Fairbanks Team or Panthers Team for the transition. If they have questions about this schedule or need family information, parents and students are asked to contact their building or central offices.
The district started the year in Learning Level 2 and attempted several times to transition to Learning Level 1 where students would attend in-person classes five days a week. The district was finally able to make that transition and had its first and only week on Learning Level 1 earlier this month.
An outbreak of COVID-19 cases forced the high school to move to hybrid for last week and this week.
As of this morning, Fairbanks has 13 current cases of COVID-19, including seven high school students, one middle school student and five staff members. The district also has 191 students or staff members quarantined, including students and staff at all buildings.
“We have no reason to believe that trend will not continue over the next several weeks,” Schirg said.
As a result of the outbreak, district officials held a series of meetings last week with students, advisory board members, teachers and staff, administrators and parents.
Schirg said the meeting with teachers offered “differing ideas, opinions of a shift in learning levels.”
The workgroup of parents, administrators and some board members produced some consensus.
“My impression was that all individuals on the call wanted to have students in school. There was no really push for remote learning,” Schirg said.
Board member Derek Nicol said that, “pretty much, parents want some type of interaction with their students for social, emotional well-being.”
Board member Brian Phelps said he appreciates the approach district leadership has taken to this process.
“It’s good to have as many stakeholders’ input as we can before we make this decision,” Phelps said.
Officials said they will continue to meet with a variety of stakeholders through this period and reevaluate at the Jan. 13 board meeting. Officials said Jan. 18 would likely be the earliest changes could be made to student scheduling.
High School student Emily Truskoski, who serves as a student ambassador to the board, said that from a student perspective there are, “concerns over being able to reach teachers” in the hybrid model.
She said that students in the hybrid model are not always doing work during traditional school hours and not able to contact teachers after hours.
Extracurricular and co-curricular activities will move forward as scheduled. Fairbanks Athletics for Grades 7-12 are paused, but can resume on Monday, Nov. 30. There will be enhanced protocols with certain activities.
“There is concern of evidence of spread of COVID-19 through youth sports, but we also recognize that interscholastic sports are important, very much, for our school community and our students participating in them,” Schirg said.
He explained the district will continue to monitor the impact these activities have on school operations and adjust as needed, noting that for extracurricular and co-curricular activities to continue, “focusing on protocols is a priority.”
The district is asking parents to remain focused on symptom assessment, having students stay home when they are ill or awaiting a COVID-19 test in household, masking, hand hygiene and deep cleaning.
Officials said students have until Dec. 1 to opt into or out of the Fairbanks Local Digital Academy for the second semester. Families wanting more information or to move are asked to contact Teresa Goins at tgoins@fairbankspanthers.org.