The Fox C-6 School District will expand in-class instruction for students in all grade levels from two days a week to four days a week when the second semester starts Jan. 19, Superintendent Nisha Patel announced during the Board of Education meeting on Tuesday (Dec. 15).
The first semester ends Jan. 15, and after a scheduled day off for Martin Luther King Day on Jan. 18, classes will resume Jan. 19.
Ever since the school year started on Aug. 27, about 8,500 of its 11,163 students have been enrolled in the district’s Flexible Learning Plan, with about half of those attending class in person on Mondays and Tuesdays and the other half on Thursdays and Fridays.
On Wednesdays, the students learn online at home.
The district’s other 2,652 students are enrolled in the Virtual Academy, which is Fox’s online-only instruction program.
When the second semester starts, all students who want to attend class in-person will be in school on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Wednesdays will remain a virtual instruction day.
“We have learned and grown from this pandemic,” Patel said during the board meeting. “Things continue to evolve, and I would hope that as your superintendent you want me to learn, grow, adjust and be flexible. I have said as long as we are in the red (the highest threat level on the Jefferson County Health Department’s COVID-19 warning system), we will not bring more kids in for more in-person learning.”
However, Patel said her thinking has changed.
“I have learned we do have really strong mitigating factors in place, including the best nurses doing the best job of contact tracing. I do believe that is why our transmission rate is low," she said. "We are making sure everybody is quarantined when they need to be. I am learning Jefferson County finally has a mask (order). It will help in our community.
“Based on all of that, my plan is for second semester, Jan 19, to go K-12 four days.”
Patel previously planned to expand in-class instruction in November, with kindergarten through second-grade students to attend classes four days a week beginning Nov. 5, followed by third- through fifth-grade students two weeks later, and then middle school and then high school students sometime after that.
Those plans were halted Oct. 24, though, when the Health Department announced the county was in the red status, which is the highest level on the agency’s four-color COVID-19 warning system. The red level indicates widespread and uncontrolled spread of the virus.
Patel’s announcement that Fox will expand to a four-day schedule for in-person instruction, regardless of the county’s status on the warning system, was met with applause.
A group of about 100 students, parents and staff members gathered Tuesday outside the Fox C-6 Service Center in Arnold, where board meetings are held, to encourage Patel to expand in-person instruction.
The group held signs asking for more classroom days, with most signs also saying they support Patel.
Before the start of the school board meeting, Erin McBride, who has one child enrolled in the district, said assistant superintendent Randy Gilman previously reported there is no difference between the number of COVID-19 cases at all-virtual schools and those with students in classrooms full time.
“If that is the case, why are we still sitting at part-time virtual. We want our schools back in full time, period,” she said.
About 50 people attended the meeting, which was the maximum number allowed so proper social distancing could be maintained. A group also gathered in the lobby outside the meeting room to listen to the discussion about the second semester plans.
Seven people, including one student, addressed the board during the meeting, encouraging the move to more in-person instruction.
“I wanted to show my support of our superintendent,” said Bettina Woolsey, a Seckman High School special education teacher who has five children enrolled in the district. “She has kept a positive perspective while carefully navigating the most difficult school year ever. As a secondary education teacher, I have seen my students struggle as they never have before. Our students need us to be there for them.”
While Patel’s announcement was good news for many, board member Carole Yount said she was worried about increasing in-person learning if the county is still in the red status on Jan. 19.
“I’m still a believer that as long as we are in the red, staff and students should not be in the buildings full time,” Yount said during the meeting. “My priority is safety in our buildings.
However, she also said she supported Patel’s decision.
“I respect that and the work she and her administration have put into making this decision,” Yount said. “I will do whatever is necessary to be sure our students and staff are safe and get the education they deserve. This decision is not a debate. We will simply agree to disagree but will follow her lead. Thank you, Dr. Patel, for your unending dedication to the Fox School District.”
