sequim-school

By: Pepper Fisher

SEQUIM – The Sequim School District’s Teaching and Learning Task Force Committee split a tie vote on how to reopen schools in the fall, and Superintendent Rob Clark says he’s going to break the tie.

Half of the committee supports a full hybrid model that has students attending classes on alternating days to reduce class sizes. The other half are in favor of 100% remote, in-home learning.

Superintendent Clark’s favorite option is a hybrid model that’s a little different from the so-called ABAB Model that Port Angeles School District has proposed. Instead of getting all students going right away on alternating days, Clark would prefer to start out with alternating just 200 kids from the OPA and special education programs.

“Ours is much more of a staggered start. In other words, you know, instead of going from zero to 50 percent, we’re going from zero to about five or six percent. And then we’re going to add 10% at each stagger. Maybe more, maybe…I don’t know about less…but we want to adjust our, you know, our situation. We weren’t prepared to go from zero to, in our case, thirteen hundred.”

If the model is successful after 2-3 weeks, meaning Covid cases remain in check, they’d gradually welcome more students on campus. The next round of students would be K-1 kids at the elementary, 6th grade students in the Middle School, and 9th grade students in the High School. It would continue to be the Hybrid AABB Model.

He says the rotation would continue if benchmarks continue to be met, and students would have the ability to opt out of in-person instruction.