Plum School District to remain in hybrid model, no full-time in-person option yet

Plum School District will remain in the hybrid model with students split into groups coming to class two or three days a week and remote learning on off days until at least February, unless otherwise directed.

The board voted 7-2 at it’s Tuesday night’s combined workshop and voting session to maintain its current educational offerings and reevaluate moving students to five-day, in-person classes in January.

Board President Mike Devine and Joe Tommarello dissented. Both were in support of bringing back students full-time.

“We should not get in the way of a parent’s right to choose,” Tommarello said.

There is an online-only and hybrid option for families. The administration has recommended not moving students back to full-time attendance until at least after the holiday break.

“I truly think we could have an option for five days per week and do it safely for our teachers,” Devine said.

Devine also proposed a tiered system in which students could come back three days per week, then four days until it was safe and feasible for five-day, in-person instruction.

He said if parents could have a “light at the end of the tunnel,” it would ease frustrations of those who want their students back in school full time.

Board member Scott Coulson said the district needs to proceed with extreme caution due to the rising number of coronavirus cases and staffing concerns.

“I don’t want that light at the end of the tunnel to be an oncoming train,” Coulson said.

Staffing and social distancing were among the reasons Superintendent Brendan Hyland did not recommend moving students back in to school full time.

“It’s tenuous to move to a full in-person model,” Hyland said. “If we did go to a full in-person model, we can’t guarantee that physical distancing for students because of that close contact. … “If I don’t have teachers that are there and staff members there to teach your kids, there’s no sense of coming back.”

Hyland said the district has made many efforts to increase its substitute teaching staff, hire student teachers and more to ensure a quality education is being delivered, but responses to the employment opportunities have been minimal.

Covid cases are also not helping matters. The district had to close Oblock Junior High for two weeks due to staffing problems after two employees tested positive for the virus earlier this year.

Multiple high school students missed class Tuesday and can not return to the building until early December after attending a parent-sponsored homecoming dance three days prior.

More than a dozen parents spoke during the virtual school board meeting prior to the board’s vote.

Resident Brooke Hohman, who started an online petition to bring back five-day schooling, talked about how her children were struggling with virtual learning.

“I don’t believe it does our children any good to sit in front of a screen all day,” she said.

Other parents said their students were suffering from lack of social interaction and their grades were slipping as a result of not being in schools more often.

Still others said the district needs to heed the word of health officials and consider the increased risk of spreading covid-19 with more in-person instruction.

Parent Justin Tuskan launched an online petition to maintain the hybrid model.

He said the model was “not ideal,” but it provides a safe option for some classroom instruction while adhering to safety guidelines and reduced risk of spreading the virus.

A presentation of the instructional model update was posted on the district’s website under November’s “related documents.”