Following the Labor Day weekend, Sweet Home students will return to school Tuesday, Sept. 8, on-line, thanks to local COVID-19 case counts that the state has deemed too high to allow kids in classrooms.
Supt. Tom Yahraes said teachers returned this week for “in-service training” with Monday and Tuesday dedicated to general facility and staff preparation – “going through safety protocols, social distance, mask protocols” and training in Canvas, the online learning system the district has decided to use this fall.
Wednesday and Thursday will be dedicated to lesson preparation for teachers, he said.
“The next week is the beginning of the school year for students, working together to get on board with Canvas.”
Also, Yahraes said, teachers will be preparing lessons for future Canvas sessions and “getting into the rhythm” of the school year.
Due to the county’s COVID metrics, plans to start the year with kindergarten through third-graders in classrooms have had to be shelved, but Yahraes said he plans to bring special-needs students in as soon as possible for in-person instruction, limited though it may be.
“We’re looking at (Oregon Department of Education) provisions for limited on-site instruction,” he said. “They allow us to bring kids into our schools, in very low numbers, for a short duration of time for limited on-site instruction. I anticipate exercising that.
“These will be the ones who show the highest need of connecting to school and site-based resources.”
Doing that will pave the way for the general student population to return, he added.
“When our metrics are OK and we’ve passed that six-week mark in the community, we’re prepared to bring kids back in a safe, systematic way. We’re ready to reopen.”