How Brown’s Recent Announcement Is Affecting the District Guidelines for CDL
By Camden Maggard
This article was originally published on January 27th, 2021.
Update (3/2/2021): Since the publication of this article, the district has released plans for an additional hybrid program for middle and high school students. You can read more here.
Recently, a new section on the BSD website was released following Kate Brown’s decision to change the metrics for returning to school. OPB reports that these new guidelines put teachers “in line for vaccines [directly] after healthcare workers and people at long-term care facilities,” and the changes made to the guidelines have made it significantly easier for a district to become eligible for in-person instruction. However, Brown’s announcement also kept intact the ability of individual districts to determine how they want to handle distance and hybrid learning.
According to the district website, there is no plan to convert to a hybrid model anytime soon for middle and high school students. Instead, the district plans to roll out a plan called Limited In-Person Instruction, or LIPI for short. This program will give a small group of students selected by the district the opportunity to attend in-person school on a limited basis. According to the site, students selected for the program may include “students with disabilities, some English language learners and those students who don’t have reliable internet connectivity.” The district has given a tentative starting date of February 22nd for this program, and asks that students not inquire about eligibility for the program — instead, the district says, eligible students will be contacted directly by staff.
The district also has plans to begin a program called BSD Connect if and only if the guidelines for doing so are met. This program would give all students the opportunity to meet for “in-school small group interactions,” such as specific clubs and labs. However, all regular classes would remain online using the CDL model.
The district has not ruled out the possibility of beginning a hybrid program for middle and high school students during the 2020–2021 school year, but has no specific plans regarding the topic published on their website. However, there are plans in place to begin a hybrid model for elementary school students. For elementary school students who choose to opt into the hybrid program in kindergarten, first, or second grade, the program will begin no earlier than April 4th. Older grades will then likely be introduced as time passes. These elementary school students will attend school for a limited time four days a week, and do the rest of their schoolwork online. The starting date of this program is dependent on the speed of vaccinations, and may be abandoned altogether if the district no longer meets the statewide requirements for elementary schools to meet by the time enough vaccinations have been given. For students attending a public elementary school that opt out of the program, classes will remain online, but it’s possible that the student’s teacher may change.
The district stresses that parents and guardians of elementary school students must make the decision whether or not to send their child to hybrid school or keep them in CDL, and commit to that decision for the rest of the year. Parents and guardians of these students must make this decision by February 15th, and details regarding the program will be provided via email. Additionally, the district has provided a video with important information regarding the hybrid program for elementary school students, available in both English and Spanish.
