All public school districts in Lewis County, excluding Mossyrock School District will be beginning the year with a fully online distancing learning model.
On Aug 3, Lewis County Health Officer Dr. Rachel Wood recommended that all public and private schools in Lewis County start the 2020-21 school year with distance learning only.
Centralia, Chehalis, Napavine, Winlock, Toledo, Onalaska, Morton, Pe Ell, White Pass and Adna School Districts will all be beginning the school year with fully online learning.
On Monday, the Mossyrock School Board voted 3-2 to reopen the district with a hybrid learning model which means students will be in the classroom for a portion of the week and learning remotely for the other days.
“As new information arrives, Monday night’s decision may need to be revisited. The health department could upgrade their recommendation to a directive, the governor could issue another stay at home order, our county’s numbers could change forcing a modification to different phase … there are still many ‘what ifs’,” said Mossyrock School District Interim Superintendent Dr. Glenn Malone.
Malone said that the school board close vote by the school board reflects the diverse feedback the district has received from the community. The district collected surveys from 200 families with students in the district and the results showed that 37 percent of families plan to send their child to school if the district takes the proper precautions, 43 percent said they need more information, and 13 percent said they wouldn’t be sending their child to school given the current conditions.
The results also showed that 44 percent of parents are concerned that their child might get sick at school and 45 percent are concerned about their child having to wear a mask at school.
“Our community, like many others, has differing views on how and when we should open school. Our task remains the same, we must prepare to open schools both fully online and using a hybrid, face-to-face model,” said Malone. “Given the fluidity of the situation, we must be ready to pivot between the two models quickly, within 48 hours.”
The Mossyrock School District will provide a fully online option for those families that would prefer their child learns from home.
Malone said the district is still working out the details of the reopening plan and will send out another survey to parents to help the district plan for in-person learning. He said the district has spoken with their attorney before making this decision.
“Reopening is still permitted — it’s not forbidden so until it is forbidden that option still remains open to school districts,” Malone said.
Now that the district has voted to offer hybrid in-person learning to start the school year, the reopening plan will be finalized and presented to the Mossyrock school board for approval on Aug. 18.
Centralia Christan School, a local private school, has opted to provide full-time in-person learning for all students in the fall.
“We’re following the guidelines by the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics and they both recommend in-person schooling for children is the best option. We realize that the public schools have a lot more issues to deal with than we do,” said Centralia Christian School Principal Ann Stout. “As a small school, we can offer in-person education safely, we believe.”
Stout said that the parents of students at Centralia Christian School are in favor of in-person schooling in the fall.
“If the governor mandates that schools close and public and private school have to close then we will return to the distance learning system,” she said.
