The Pella School Board received an extensive update and approved a preliminary return to learn plan for the district at their meeting this week.
Superintendent Greg Ebeling, Director of K-12 Instruction Lowell Ernst, Madison Elementary Principal John Steddom, Jefferson Intermediate Principal Brian Miller, and Human Resources Director Linda Russell all presented at the meeting about the core categories of the district’s plan: teaching and learning, health and safety, equity, social and emotional behaviors and health, and external communication.
Ebeling says the district is preparing for in-building classes for the upcoming school year, but also is developing options of off-site remote learning and a hybrid model of the two, especially since there will be some families who will want to keep students home and some staff members especially vulnerable to the virus.
“We think we’ll be more likely in a face-to-face and some kind of a hybrid mode with some students than we will with complete closure as we were this spring. We’re really planning and trying to be face-to-face with some exceptions that we will have to plan for,” Ebeling says.
Ernst says the plan from the Iowa Department of Education is to make all offerings required whether they happen in a classroom or at home, unlike the voluntary remote courses offered online this past spring.
“If we were to go remote again all work would be required,” Ernst says. “Students would have to complete that work to get a credit, and it would be graded. Those are all significantly different factors we experienced this past spring.”
Several considerations will be developed over the remainder of the summer to implement thorough safety and sanitation standards, as well as ways to ensure equity in education for all students, whether they come to the buildings or stay remote.