Students in the De Soto School District will continue to attend classes in person four days a week rather than five for the second semester of the current school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The second semester is scheduled to run from Jan. 20 through May 26.
Board of Education members voted unanimously Dec. 17 to adopt the schedule that calls for students to learn virtually from home on Mondays and in class the other four days.
However, families still have the option of having students learn completely online at home.
When the district started the school year, students either attended classes in-person five days a week or received instruction online at home five days a week, but after several teachers and principals told the board the staff was struggling to keep up with the demands of combining in-classroom teaching and virtual learning, the board voted to allow Mondays to be a virtual day for all students the rest of the first semester, with a promise to revisit the issue later.
“The reality is that as we’ve gone through the school year, cases are going up, not down. It hasn’t let up, so we’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” Superintendent Josh Isaacson said.
“The Mondays have helped our teachers a lot,” De Soto High School Principal John Daniels said. “When we started in August, it was quickly evident that we couldn’t easily sustain both learning models at once, with a lot of teachers having to learn the new technology on the fly. Having the Mondays have made it much easier for our teachers. Of course, what we all want is for all of our students to be in class all the time.”
Isaacson said parents have largely been supportive of the modified calendar.
“We appreciate the continued flexibility of our community as we try to get through this pandemic,” he said.
Isaacson said flexibility may be needed again soon after school resumes after the holiday break on Tuesday, Jan. 5.
“Our concern coming back in January is that there will be another spike in cases right after the holidays,” he said.
Even though the district had to go to an all-virtual format twice so far this year, from Nov. 11-13 and again from Nov. 20 through Dec. 8, Isaacson said the Monday remote learning days have ultimately worked to keep students in class.
“They didn’t help when we were down 52 staff members (for the second closure), but they have helped overall,” he said.
During the remote learning days, no in-person classes are held and no teacher-led virtual instruction is held.
However, teachers are charged with posting assignments for students to work on and are available to speak with students individually.
On the virtual Mondays, the district’s principals said, they have been meeting with teachers to figure out ways to improve the district’s online instruction, with concerns that more complete in-class shutdowns are in the future.
“It starts with high-quality instruction,” said Doréan Dow, assistant superintendent of curriculum, instruction and assessment. “That’s what we always need to be focused on, no matter which tools we use, and technology is a tool.”