NORTHAMPTON — The School Committee voted last month to move to a hybrid learning model, but the specifics of the plan may change.
New hybrid plans are being discussed for kindergarten and elementary students to make sure that remote learning for those who choose not to return in person is “more robust,” the School Committee wrote in a letter to families and employees on Friday. A discussion and possible vote on a hybrid model are scheduled for the committee’s Zoom meeting on Monday that starts at 6:45 p.m.
Under last month’s vote to approve moving to a hybrid model, the committee agreed that students in preschool through first grade would return for hybrid learning beginning in mid-November, with additional grades phased in until all students have returned on a hybrid basis by Feb. 22. With that plan, elementary school students would be divided into two groups, with one group meeting for in-person learning on Monday and Tuesday and the other group meeting for in-person learning on Thursday and Friday.
But, “the School Committee has received feedback from all sides regarding educators’ and the overall community’s strong desire to be able to offer a hybrid model that supports both in-person and synchronous remote learning for those for whom it is best while not disrupting fully-remote learning for those who need or prefer it,” Friday’s letter reads. Families are able to opt out of hybrid learning and stay fully remote.
The Northampton Association of School Employees — the union that represents teachers, education support professionals, and others who work in the schools — proposed a new plan where those who opt for hybrid learning will have two half days in-person each week, according to the letter.
“High risk students receiving in person instruction will maintain their current schedule,” the letter reads. “Depending on the numbers, additional high risk students may be able to come for four half days.”
The School Committee is considering that plan and a plan in which hybrid students have two full days each week of in-person instruction.
With either plan, remote-only students can choose to “stay with their assigned class or be assigned to a remote-only classroom to stay on the same remote-only schedule they have had from the start of the school year,” the letter says.
The district said it would do its best to keep students with their current teacher.
“However, we know our employees have a variety of individual situations, and not all of them will be able to teach or work in-person, potentially resulting in some students needing to change teachers regardless of the model selected.”
Superintendent John Provost said Friday that he couldn’t comment further than the letter. Information about how to join the Zoom meeting can be found on the city’s website.
Greta Jochem can be reached at gjochem@gazettenet.com.