Valley Grove School Board members voted Monday to add three early dismissal days in October to give teachers time to prepare material for online students as the district approaches a return to full in-person attendance next week.
The two-hour early dismissals will be on Oct. 16, 23 and 30, which are all Fridays.
“All of the data from the Department of Health and the Department of Education certainly allows us to move ahead,” Superintendent Kevin Briggs said at Monday’s school board meeting about the move into phase three of the district’s reopening plan.
With a green light on a full return to in-person classes next Monday, board members had an extensive discussion about how the district would balance between in-person and online students.
Specifically, the board talked about how teachers will be prepared and how effective the addition of the early dismissals would be.
“Starting Monday, you are either an online or in-person student,” board member Todd Wetjen said, noting the upcoming split in students.
Wetjen said he opposed adding more than two early dismissal days as students already were missing multiple days of education due to the phased reopening to the school year.
“Its already been 12 days as of Monday,” Wetjen said.
Board member William Copley said he was concerned teachers wouldn’t have enough time to prepare materials for online students with the full return of in-person students next week. He advocated for four or more early dismissal days.
Briggs suggested board members compromise at three early dismissal days, and the motion was passed by a unanimous 8-0 vote. Board member Deb Brink was absent.
Briggs said the district has “about 150 kids total in cyber school.”
Copley asked how teachers are responding to the gradual return to full in-person classes.
“Anecdotally it’s been very good,” Briggs said.
“At the elementary level the teachers want the kids back,” said Valley Grove Elementary principal Jacob Saullo. “They’re ready to get back to normal routines,”
“We had that exact same conversation at the high school,” Rocky Grove High School principal Kelly Hart said.
Hart said the teachers feel more comfortable having all the students back in the buildings to teach.
