Curious about North Thurston’s plan for the fall? An announcement is coming this week
The North Thurston Public Schools board on Tuesday approved a reopening plan for this fall, although school schedules are still being worked out this week. District officials expect to make an announcement in the coming days.
“We are finalizing our remote learning schedule with our teachers and expect to post for families no later than Friday,” district spokeswoman Courtney Schrieve said.
North Thurston Public Schools put its original hybrid plan — a combination of classroom and online learning — on hold after county health officials recommended that K-12 students start the year at home because of a recent rise in COVID-19 cases. Thurston County has had 868 confirmed cases of the virus in the five months since the first case in early March — but 219 of those cases have appeared since Aug. 1.
The hybrid plan is on hold until at least Nov. 13, the district announced.
Although the district couldn’t shed light on school schedules during Tuesday’s school board meeting, students will not be online all day, said Vicky Lamoreaux, who oversees instructional services for the district.
Instead, there will be a mix of real-time and flexible time of learning, she said.
“The recommendations indicate that K-5 students should only spend about 50 percent of their time online,” Lamoreaux said. “The recommendation for secondary (middle and high school) students is 60 percent to 85 percent of their time online, but not all direct instruction.”
During the online school board meeting, a resident asked whether K-5 students would be expected to be online about three hours per day, since the typical school day is about six hours.
“No, not necessarily,” Lamoreaux said. “That would be an upper limit.”
Teachers will work regular schedules, she said.
“The teacher schedule follows the normal school schedule with time built in for both live and flexible learning blocks, time for small or individual group support, as well as student and family support times,” Lamoreaux said.
School board member Dave Newkirk acknowledged that it’s a challenging time for the district and its families, and that teachers, like his wife, want to get back in the classroom where they can interact with students and build relationships.
“She didn’t sign up for this,” he said about online learning. He added that he fully supports a return to classroom learning, but “we have to do it at the right time and in the right way.”
Newkirk also praised the district executives, staff, teachers and para-educators for their work to come up with an online plan.
“I am very confident that we will have a great model and our students are going to get well-educated to the best of their abilities with online learning,” he said.
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
