The Hillsboro R-3 Board of Education will hold a special meeting next week to discuss the possibility of expanding the number of days students attend classes in person.
In November, the school board voted to delay expanding the number of in-class instruction days from two to four a week for its younger students, at least until the start of the second semester on Jan. 19.
The district began the school year in August with about 80 percent of its students following a hybrid class schedule that has students in class two days a week and learning online from home the other three days. Of those students, half take classes in-person on Mondays and Tuesdays, and the other half on Thursdays and Fridays. All students take classes online on Wednesdays, when the buildings are thoroughly cleaned and sanitized.
The other approximately 20 percent of the district’s students are learning entirely online from home.
In October, Hillsboro school officials agreed to expand in-class instruction to four days a week for students in kindergarten through sixth grade who are enrolled in the hybrid system, beginning Nov. 15, and then expand the number of days for the older students at the start of the second semester.
However, that plan has changed because of an uptick in district staff and students testing positive for COVID-19, as well as staff and students being quarantined after possible exposure to the virus, Superintendent Jon Isaacson said.
Isaacson said Hillsboro is having a difficult time hiring enough substitute teachers to cover for teachers out for COVID-19 or other reasons.
He said a decision whether to expand to a four-day-per-week in-person class schedule for the second semester will be discussed at the special meeting, which will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5. The meeting will be held via the Zoom videoconferencing platform, and the public may watch it through the district’s website at hsdr3.org.
The district has more than 3,300 students and about 450 employees,
Isaacson said.