While the two school districts may follow a similar path on SROs, they are actively diverging on fall plans to reopen in the face of this ghastly COVID-19 pandemic.
OPRF is headed to a virtual fall semester for almost every student. The elementary and middle schools are planning for a hybrid that would have most students in class on a staggered schedule two days per week. All students would have one day of “remote learning” on Wednesdays.
We give credit to both districts for their sincere and effective outreach to parents, students, faculty and staff to gauge their comfort levels with various options. Not surprisingly there was high interest in the surveys. Not surprisingly there was not a consensus view. And, certainly not surprising, now that the schools have declared their intentions there is a welter of conflicted responses on social media.
Everyone is emotionally bushed, financially stretched, profoundly worried. Parents are frustrated by the full-time virtual path at the high school. Parents are on edge over sending their young kids into a school building even with a reduced class size and stepped up cleaning just two days a week.
The only clamor we don’t hear locally is from parents or teachers who want full-time, in-school classes restored.
All of this is, of course, subject to change since we’ve all learned we don’t have nearly full control of this virus. We have at best the power to influence its course if we have the determination to stay safe.
