College Place Public Schools announced a successful first week of its PK-12 Hybrid Learning yesterday. The district brought back PK-5 January 11th, grades 6-8 on January 25th, and 9-12 this week. The district is operating on an “AM/PM Hybrid Learning” schedule where students attend onsite one-half of the day and work remotely the other half of the day. Close to 200 full remote students are served by CPPS staff each day as well.
CPPS has implemented hundreds of safety measures including improved pick up and drop off procedures, social distancing dots throughout hallways and common areas, hand sanitizer in every classroom, handwashing stations in each school entry, daily wellness screening protocols, restroom occupancy restrictions, and frequent surface sanitization. College Place Public Schools is blessed to have the CPPS Dream Lab that produces many of the monogrammed stickers, posters, and signage in-house. CPHS teachers Byron Tropp and Matt Raikes have been instrumental in creating the many items that promote safety across both campuses.
CPPS continues to serve and connect daily with students who have opted for full time remote learning or may need to be absent by including them virtually. In many classes at the secondary level, students connect into classroom discussions virtually and are partnered with onsite students for learning. At the elementary level, students have been assigned a grade level teacher where they interact with other remote learning students in their grade level.
“We continue to find new solutions to new problems daily. I have been amazed, but not surprised, by our staff’s ability to adjust and problem solve,” said Superintendent Jim Fry.
CPPS expects that it will have to remain in its Hybrid Learning model until the six foot social distancing requirement is relaxed due to space constraints. If the requirements continue beyond this school year, CPPS, like other schools in the area, might have to reconfigure spaces or target specific grades for full day instruction. “We just don’t know at this point,” said Superintendent Fry. “I know the Superintendent of Public Instruction is working to convince the state Department of Health that we should use the international measurement of a meter and half. If we were able to do that we would be able to be fully in person for full days.”
While this has been a year unlike any other, the staff in CPPS have done an incredible job. From the retraining and rerouting of buses, new custodial sanitizing protocols, new meal service expectations, to each day’s instruction you can witness the staff commitment to doing school safely and effectively. To top that off, the contributions of parents, grandparents, and families to learning at home has been nothing short of amazing.