The Owensboro Public Schools Board of Education on Thursday approved a second-semester learning plan that will be “fluid” from week to week. Officials said the plan will be fluid based on various circumstances as it gets closer to Jan. 14, when the spring semester officially begins.
“Due to the ever-changing nature of COVID-19, it is problematic to project a learning model that would last a long period of time,” said Superintendent Matthew Constant. “The big reveal is, I don’t know what’s going to happen next semester. Therefore, learning plans could potentially be fluid with possibilities of [four different] models.”
The options proposed by Constant are as follows:
- A/B model as experienced in first semester learning
- Modified A/B model that increases in-person learning by adding either another A or B day to each week
- 100% distance learning model (NTI for the A/B model)
- Additional in-person learning (4-5 days per week) will be considered based on the following variables: Grouping of students, positive cases/quarantine, incidence rate map, and facility limitations/capacity
- This option is left as fluid model that could included various combinations of learning methods, even including returning to in-person learning five days a week
Constant said OPS would keep their virtual academy — a distance learning program that 20% of OPS students opted for this semester — as an option for next semester.
As much as possible, OPS will announce each Thursday evening which of the four learning options will be used for the following week.
For the learning plan on Jan. 14, 2021 and the following week, an announcement will be made Jan. 7, 2021.
Depending on potential positive student and/or staff COVID-19 cases and the quarantines that will accompany them, it may be impossible to provide much advance notice on the learning plan, Constant said.
Additionally, he added, it could happen that some classrooms, grade-level teams, and/or campuses need to go to the 100% distance learning model while others do not.
Board member Jeremy Luckett — a physician who said he contracted and recovered from COVID-19 twice (once in April and once in October) — advocated for five-day learning for OPS students during Thursday’s meeting, and he gave Constant and his administration credit for their “thorough” and “data-driven” decision making process.
“I’m pushing for in-person learning everyday. I think the risks [of keeping students home from in-person learning] outweigh the risks of the virus,” he said. “I do think we need a thoughtful approach on how we do that.”
