As the COVID-19 numbers begin to shift, schools are evaluating their next steps.
Jonathan Alder is preparing to welcome students back to the classroom, all day, every day.
“That is our intention,” said Misty Swanger, assistant superintendent for Jonathan Alder Local Schools.
Currently, the majority of Jonathan Alder students attend class in-person two days a week and remotely two days a week. District officials announced that over the next month, students from each building will return to in-person learning five days a week.
Marysville Superintendent Diane Allen said her district is not currently planning a return to five-day, in-school instruction.
She said district officials would like more time to continue monitoring the hybrid model currently in place, before making any kind of adjustment.
Allen said the board of education is likely to discuss the topic at its board meeting tonight, focusing on educational progress being made in the hybrid model.
Fairbanks officials are also planning to discuss the matter at their next board meeting.
Superintendent Adham Schirg said that when the original plan was announced in early August, officials promised the community they would reassess the situation in four weeks.
“We are currently going through that reevaluation process,” Schirg said.
He explained that district officials are working with the Union County Health Department and evaluating local health data, school district heath data and feedback from stakeholders including teachers, the school board, parents and students.
He said he anticipates the school board will decide at its meeting Monday.
He said it will be important to communicate that plan effectively.
Alder officials are working to explain their return process.
Officials said they have been looking at building and classroom capacity, adjusting class rolls and identifying areas of logistical and space concern.
Beginning Monday, Sept. 28, students at Monroe and Plain City elementary schools, which serve students in kindergarten through fourth grade, will return to full-time, in-person education. The district will use Wednesday, Sept. 30, as a professional development day allowing officials to refine and adjust schedules, bus routes, classes and lunch procedures as necessary. Building students would return to school that Thursday and Friday.
Swanger said the elementary schools are newer, with larger classrooms and more space. She said it is important to have the elementary students in class full-time to better meet the “educational, social-emotional and developmental needs of all our students.”
Swanger said high school students have an “anticipated return date” of Oct. 12. She said that delay allows the district more time to purchase supplies and adjust schedules.
She said the “greatest logistical challenges in planning” are for students at Canaan Middle School and Jonathan Alder Junior High School. Those buildings are expected to return Oct. 22.
Swanger said those grades have the largest class rosters and are therefore more limited on space requiring greater accommodations. Additionally, she said those buildings are older and have less useable space for distancing.
Swanger said teachers have done, “a great job” with the hybrid model, but getting students in the classroom full-time, “is the best thing for our students’ social-emotional health, for them academically and helps to get students back to a sense of normalcy.”
She said that as the plan moves forward the district will adapt and adjust logistical and instructional plans as needed. She said that if at any point the health commissioner asks the district to go another direction, it will.
Students in the Triad district are not experiencing the adjustment that other districts are going through. Unlike other local districts, Triad students and families had the option to return to school in-person, five days a week before the academic year started.
When crafting the district’s Reset/Restart Plan for the 2020-21 school year, Superintendent Vickie Hoffman said, even if every family chose to return to classes, the district had the capacity to still meet safety guidelines.
Families who felt uncomfortable sending their students back to school did also have the option to participate in virtual learning from home, instead.
However, Hoffman said less than 10% of Triad students elected to stay home.
North Union students also had the option to attend school in-person, several days a week as part of a hybrid learning style.
Otherwise, families with concerns about returning to school were able to opt into the North Union Digital Academy, teacher-supported online learning from home five days a week.
Superintendent Rich Baird was not available for comment before press time. The NU Board of Education has a regular meeting scheduled for Monday.
All of the districts have stressed that plans are subject to change based on evolving conditions, information and recommendations.