Gov. Jim Justice says he supports Cabell County’s decision to switch to a hybrid model for the start of the school year.
“It gets back to what is the foundation of our entire plan. Our entire plan was all centered around local control and local input,” Justice said during a briefing today.
“Because we felt like those superintendents and those school boards and everything, they would know what is best for their county. So as long as we have a real choice that’s involved here, and everything, and people are inputting the very best they can input, we support that.”
Cabell made its decision this week.
Some other counties, such as Raleigh and Monongalia, were already planning to start the year with blended learning. The state Board of Education’s website lists 28 counties with “blended” plans.
Cabell County’s school board on Tuesday voted to adopt a blended model that would not have all students in classrooms on the same day.
Cabell County Superintendent Ryan Saxe said school system leaders drew on a variety of public comments.
“Ultimately what we decided was the safest return-to-learning option for our children was to be able to start first semester in a full-blended learning opportunity or virtual school,” Saxe said today on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”
So, when the first week of school starts right after Labor Day, students with last names starting with A-K will attend Tuesday and Wednesday. Students with last names starting with L-Z then will attend Thursday and Friday.
On days when students aren’t in classrooms, they will participate in remote learning.
On the second week of school, when there is no holiday, the first group of students will attend Monday and Tuesday. The second group will attend Thursday and Friday. On the open Wednesday, schools will be cleaned.
Staff will still report even on remote days.
“The Wednesday option, which is remote learning also will be a day when our teachers in our school buildings will be able to connect with all of their students through teams meetings, virtual connections, to answer questions, to problem solve, to help tutor, those types of things as well,” he said.
“So while there’s only two days of face-to-face instruction, there are five full days of learning taking place every single week in Cabell County.”
Going back to classrooms a full five days a week, Saxe said, would have resulted in class sizes of 23 to 28 students per class.
Now classes will be more like 9 to 12 students.
“That affords us the opportunity to social distance while wearing masks in order to keep all of our students the safest we can during the pandemic, as well as our staff,” Saxe said.
.@CabellSuperSaxe talks with @HoppyKercheval about the decision to start school on a staggered schedule. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/r2j1Gx44qg
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) August 26, 2020
One advantage over the blended model versus complete remote learning is that students without good internet access would be able to download materials during their days at school so they can work on them on days when they are home.
“If our students don’t have internet or limited internet, they can download the activities at school those days that they would need to do on their device that the school district is providing this year,” Saxe said.
In Monongalia County, Assistant Superintendent Donna Talerico said families were able to choose among four options, including face-to-face learning.
“Now, we’ve had that option on the table, but up until we worked with our health department and medical officials, we were planning on bringing all of our students back. Well, with their guidance we had to pivot — and we were able to say ‘Well, we need to do this with smaller groups,'” Talerico said today.
“So our in-person learning is actually a model that is in-person and distant, meaning our students are back for a day of in-person and then they’re home for a day of distance learning.”
Seventy percent of families have chosen that blended learning option, Talerico said on “Talk of the Town” on WAJR Radio.
A second option is “Mon County Schools Distance Learning,” aimed at families who feel more comfortable with remote learning for the first nine weeks or the first semester. About 23 percent have selected that option, Talerico said.
About 5 percent have chosen the state’s virtual learning option.
And about 2 percent of families have chosen homeschooling, Talerico said.