WESTHAMPTON — The Westhampton School Committee has opted to have its students return to school under a hybrid model.
The 4-1 vote came at the School Committee’s Thursday meeting, with school committee member Wesley Bowser casting the lone no vote.
School Committee Chair Brigid O’Riordan said members made their decision after input during the public comment period, via email, and from surveys. Survey responses were about evenly split among remote-learning, hybrid, and in-person learning models, she said.
Under the hybrid model, students will be split into two groups, with one group going to school in-person Monday and Tuesday and another group going to school in-person Thursday and Friday. The rest of the days students will be educated remotely, and parents can also opt to have their children educated entirely remotely.
The committee also voted to allow in-person learning to be done as half-days, at the discretion of the principal.
Town children attend Westhampton Elementary School for pre-K through sixth grade; seventh through 12th graders are taught at Hampshire Regional High School, which will use a combined remote and hybrid model of learning this fall, the regional district’s board decided Tuesday.
The hybrid model will allow students to be educated together in both academics and on safety protocols around the COVID-19 pandemic, O’Riordan said, adding that Westhampton is a unique place.
“We’ve got a very small school,” she said.
O’Riordan noted that in the younger grades, the classes this year will have five to six students, while the higher grades will have 10 to 11.
“And that’s if everybody comes,” she said.
School will start for students on Sept. 16, and the hybrid model will be in place for at least four weeks.
The School Committee also voted Thursday to create a planning committee for the reopening, which will include parents, teachers union members, the principal, and school committee representation.
Bowser, the lone no vote against the hybrid plan, said he voted against it out of an “abundance of caution.”
“I just really want everybody to be as safe as possible,” he said.
Bowser made a motion for the school to be fully remote for the first trimester of the school year, but it was defeated 4-1.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com