HOPE — Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp. is tentatively planning a return to in-person learning on Jan. 11.
Dec. 18 is the last day of the school corporation’s fall semester. Originally, the new semester was scheduled to begin on Jan. 5. However, Superintendent Shawn Price wrote in a recent letter to families that the calendar is being changed in hopes of avoiding a "possible post-holiday spike" of COVID-19.
"Teaching and learning will resume on Jan. 11, whether it be eLearning or in-person, but the goal is to be in-person," he said in a phone interview. When in-person learning resumes, a virtual option will still be available for students, he said.
Flat Rock-Hawcreek will continue to work with local and state health officials and monitor "community spread before and after the holidays," he said.
The school corporation plans to provide an update on its plans in early January.
With the planned return to in-person learning, the school calendar will change, with built-in snow days being used to make up Jan. 5 through 8. The plan is proposed as follows:
- Dec. 19-Jan. 10: No school
- Jan. 11: Teachers and students return for second semester to in-person instruction with a continued virtual option
- Jan. 18: Make-up day for Nov. 16
- Feb. 15: Make-up day for Jan. 5
- March 8-10: Make-up days for Jan. 6-8
- March 11 and 12: No school or possible snow make-up days
- March 14-21: Spring break, no school
Price said that while eLearning has provided a safe method of teaching amid COVID-19, it does not replace all of the benefits of face-to-face instruction.
"It does not take the place of the personal connections, the social interactions that school offers," he said. ". . . And I think that for many of our learners, coming into the school building and being able to sit down with their teachers and have that individual contact is critical.”
The school corporation’s weekly updates on COVID-19 case counts is suspended until in-person learning resumes, Price said. The last update posted was for the week of Nov. 20. However, since the case counts only included in-building cases, Price said that the move to eLearning made it a moot point.
"Without having students there when we went virtual, we weren’t asking those virtual to necessarily report to us," he said. "We encouraged them to, but we weren’t reporting those out, because we’re not sure on the accuracy of those numbers.”
He said that over the break, students and families should remember to practice social distancing and other precautions, including "avoiding large gatherings."
“I know it’s a difficult ask during a holiday season, but we need to be more mindful than ever of that," he said. "And our hope is that people can do their part and wear their masks and stay safe.”
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For more on Flat Rock-Hawcreek’s plans to move to in-person learning with an online option on Jan. 11, go the school corporation’s Facebook pages for Hope Elementary School and Hauser Jr./Sr. High School, as well as Hauser’s Twitter, @HauserJrSrHigh.
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