The Fox C-6 School District is making plans to increase the number of days students in kindergarten through second grade may attend in-person classes from two to four.
A date for the change has not been set, but district officials hope to put it in effect in mid-October, around when the first quarter ends on Oct. 23.
Fox Superintendent Nisha Patel sent a letter to district parents Thursday (Sept. 24) outlining the plan.
“The decision to return to four days a week of in-person instruction for students in kindergarten through second grade will depend on various data points including data from the Jefferson County Health Department, as well as our internal, Fox C-6 COVID data,” Patel wrote.
As of this morning (Sept. 25), the district had just one elementary school-aged student unable to attend in-person classes because of testing positive for the virus. However, 31 elementary students currently are quarantined because of possible exposure to the virus, the district reported.
The district has 11 elementary schools.
No elementary school teachers currently are out because of testing positive for COVID-19, but 16 teachers are in quarantine because of possible exposure, according to the district.
The Fox district began the school year on Aug. 27 with about 77 percent of its 10,981 students enrolled in the district’s hybrid model, which has them attending in-person classes two days a week and learning online from home the other three days.
The other approximately 23 percent are enrolled in the district’s Virtual Academy and are learning entirely at home online.
Of the students who attend in-person classes, about half go on Monday and Tuesday and the other half on or Thursday and Friday, with those students learning from home the other three days of the week.
The district has 2,274 students in kindergarten through second grade. Of those, 1,805 attend in-person classes, and 469 are enrolled in the Virtual Academy, said JP Prezzavento, Fox’s communication and instructional technology coordinator.
The students who began the year in the district’s Virtual Academy will be given the option to return to in-person instruction or continue strictly learning online when a date is set to increase the number of in-class days.
Patel also said in the letter that since class sizes would increase with more students attending each day, it’s possible some students would be moved into a different classroom to balance class size and allow as much social distancing as possible.
She also said the change will allow less opportunity to social distance in classrooms, so students and teachers will continue to be required to wear masks in classrooms at all times. She said the district also will continue to practice proper hand hygiene and cleaning and disinfection, along with contact tracing.
Patel said the district is bringing students back four days a week instead of five so teachers have office time on Wednesdays while students learn virtually. The district also will use that day to allow better cleaning and disinfecting in the buildings while no students are present.
After bringing the kindergarten through second-grade students back, the district will make plans to bring third through fifth-grade students back next, followed by middle school students and then high school students, Patel said.
