By China Cassidy Last week the Holbrook Unified School District Governing Board met to discuss the five phases the district will be implementing to begin school year 2020-2021 was discussed. Because of COVID-19 restrictions implemented by Governor Doug Ducey, which restricts onsite campus learning until at least Aug. 17, students will not be able to attend in person when school begins on Aug. 3. To accommodate the school year requirements, the district has come up with a list of options for parents who want to send their children to school and those who do not. Superintendent Dr. Robbie Koerperich explained that the first phase of school year 20-21 will be distance learning through Google Classroom. Google Classroom is one of the learning platforms that the district has already been using between students and teachers to communicate, assign and turn in homework. Teachers will also be utilizing other learning programs to ensure that students are progressing at each grade level and meeting state standards. Dr. Koerperich explained that students will have the opportunity to attend classes, live, through Google Meets or other platforms, as well as have the opportunity to receive materials through downloadable software, jump drives or learning packets. Phase Two and Three of the 2020-2021 school year will consist of a blended learning model. Phase Two would offer both on-campus and off-campus options to limit the amount of exposure between students and staff. Students will receive the majority of their education from home using one of the platforms provided by the school and report to campus only certain days of the week. Phase Three of the blended learning model would incorporate more time on campus and less at home. According to Koerperich, the school will be monitoring health and wellness trends rather than restrictions to determine when students can begin spending less time distance learning from home and attending on campus classes on a more normal basis. The district will continue to monitor trends provided by the Centers of Disease Control and executive orders for other restrictions that they must follow to determine when it will be appropriate to implement Phase Five of the 12-point learning plan, which is to ultimately have students attend on campus full-time. Dr. Koerperich did say that for parents who have ongoing concerns regarding COVID-19 and are not comfortable at any point of the year sending their child back to school, there are options for them to continue their curriculum at home. Any child who is registered to attend the district and is in grades third to 12th can pick up a Chromebook from the school. Students pre-kindergarten through second grade will receive learning materials put together by their teachers, while HUSD explores other technology options for their younger student body. Due to COVID-19, the district has been exploring options outside of the typical five-day school schedule to accommodate both learning hours for students and instructional hours for staff. During the regular board meeting later in the week, the board voted to approve a newly implemented four-day school week for the year of 20-21. The governing board will monitor the new implementation and will meet to discuss the outcome on a later date.
