College Place Students Set to Return Onsite for Hybrid Learning Soon
College Place Public Schools will be returning to its AM/PM Hybrid Learning Model very soon. On Tuesday, December 22nd, the CPPS Board of Directors took action directing Superintendent Jim Fry to get students back onsite as soon as possible, even if it was necessary to roll out in a staggered manner by age/grade level based on the new guidelines set by Governor Jay Inslee and the Washington Department of Health. During the discussion on the item, Board Vice President Todd Stubblefield expressed his dissatisfaction with a slow rollout to return stating that CPPS had already shown that it could open safely in October when it was open in its Hybrid Mode for all grades.
Superintendent Fry worked with the CPPS employee groups to evaluate the parameters for return to serve the students of College Place while keeping staff and students safe. After quality collaboration over the break, an agreement was reached to bring students back to school in the AM/PM Hybrid Model. CPPS does not have the ability to fully open for all students to be onsite all day until the social distancing requirements are lifted, so the 50/50 model allows the school to meet the state requirements for distancing and have students onsite for face-to-face instruction.
January 4-8, 2021, all schools will students K-12 will continue in Full Remote Learning 9:00-12:00 daily with transition preparations occurring for students PK-5 to resume January 11, 2021
January 11-22, 2021, all students PK-5 will resume AM/PM Hybrid Learning onsite with students attending the session they were assigned and attended in October. Students in grades 6-12 at Sager Middle and College Place High Schools will continue to attend Full Remote Learning 9:00-12:00.
Barring any setbacks due to outbreaks at the school building, January 25-29, 2021, all students PK-5 AND 6-8 will attend AM/PM Hybrid Learning onsite. Students in grades 9-12 at College Place High School will continue to attend Full Remote Learning 9:00-12:00.
Again, without any setbacks due to outbreaks at the any school buildings, effective February 1, 2021, all CPPS students in grades PreK-12 will attend AM/PM Hybrid Learning onsite (*CPPS will continue to operate its At-Home Learning option for all students who elected to remain online for the entire school year).
Though many would like students to be in school on January 4th, this plan allows time for transition, implementation of new safety requirements, and ensures student and staff safety is at the forefront. Schools will remain in AM/PM Hybrid Learning until the state officials remove the social distancing requirement of six feet allowing all students to attend at the same time for the entire school day. Superintendent Jim Fry stated, “Once our schools are in Hybrid Learning we will continue in that mode moving forward. We will not revert back to Full Remote unless we have to due to specific classroom or building outbreaks. This will stop the yo-yo that we all felt with our start-stop-start-stop the first half of the year.”
CPPS acknowledges that this year has not been easy for families and for schools, but will continue to the very best for our kids and our community in the safest manner possible. “We are not out of the woods yet, but this adds to our hope that we can return to some new form of normalcy soon,” added Fry.