MOUNT VERNON – After nine weeks in the ‘hybrid’ education model, students at Mount Vernon City Schools returned to the ‘traditional’ model this week, with in-person instruction Monday through Friday.
The district chose to shift from ‘hybrid’ to ‘traditional’ after analyzing survey responses from students, parents, and staff members, according to Superintendent Bill Seder. District officials also spoke with Knox Public Health, the Mount Vernon Education Association, local OAPSE (Ohio Association of Public School Employees) representatives, and several local physicians.
“We carefully considered the safety of students and staff as well as the educational impact of both the hybrid and traditional learning models,” Seder said in an email. “We believe we have the appropriate safety protocols in place and therefore focused on the educational impact.”
The school district began the year under the ‘hybrid’ education model, which meant in-person instruction two days per week and virtual learning the other three. Students were split into two cohorts, allowing for 50-percent attendance and increased social distancing in school buses, classrooms and hallways.
District officials vowed in August to reevaluate learning models heading into the second quarter of the academic year. This would give students, teachers and parents time to develop a routine, while also leaving the door open for a potential switch in learning modes if need be. School board members discussed the merits of both options, hybrid and traditional, at a meeting Sept. 21.
During the meeting, the board boiled the decision down to one dynamic: safety vs. education. While continuing to operate in the hybrid model would likely be the safest possible in-person option during the pandemic (the school district saw just five positive COVID-19 cases through the first nine weeks), it had seemingly failed to adequately serve students, teachers and parents from an educational standpoint so far (particularly those who were most vulnerable).
“In my career, this has been one of the more agonizing decisions, because there isn’t a win-win situation. There just isn’t,” Seder said at the time. “I feel for the families that, because we’re in hybrid, they’re having a tough time making ends meet … And I’m also concerned about safety and want to be on the safest side of things.
“But the reality is, when you have safety and you have education, if you’re gonna increase safety, you’re probably just dropping the education notch down a little bit. If we go all-in and you increase the education piece, you are going to just a little bit drop the safety. We just have to determine what the right balance there is, because there is no perfect balance when it comes to those two pieces.”
A survey was sent to students, parents and district staff members following the meeting, asking which educational model they preferred. According to Seder, parents and students seemed to respond similarly (and rather decisively), while teachers were split on the question.
Approximately 70 percent of parents (1,202 of 1,713) said they would prefer the traditional learning model, with 24 percent supporting the hybrid model and 6 percent supporting full-time digital learning. Similarly, approximately 70 percent of students (618 of 877) said they would prefer the traditional model, with 26 percent in favor of hybrid and 4 percent supporting full-time digital learning.
Staff members, meanwhile, were split 50/50 between the traditional and hybrid models.
“While the staff truly wants to get all their students back, there is still some apprehension about student/staff safety and what the future may bring,” Seder said last week.
Darcy Nesbit, a high school math teacher who also serves as the president of the Mount Vernon Education Association, said district officials met “on several occasions” with the MVEA’s Labor Management Team to discuss the decision.
“Mr. Seder shared the information he had gathered from surveys, discussions with medical professionals, community members and the Knox County Health Department,” Nesbit said in an email. “Our conclusion was that there were pros and cons to both the ‘yellow’ (hybrid) and ‘green’ (traditional) learning modes and, based on the information shared with us, we would support his decision to go with either one of those options.”
After meeting with local healthcare professionals and weighing the various factors involved, district officials presented the school board with its findings the last week of September.
“I shared with board members individually the aforementioned information and my recommendation,” Seder said. “While there was no official ‘vote’, the board unanimously supported the recommendation to return ‘traditional’ with the understanding that we would need to remain flexible if emerging conditions warranted a change.”
Seder said the district’s decision came down to several factors, most of which were discussed at the September board meeting. The traditional model would offer a more productive learning environment, he said, and it would also better serve the district’s most vulnerable students, including those with disabilities and those who depend on free-and-reduced lunches. Families who might not be able to afford daytime childcare three days per week would benefit from this decision as well.
“We also believe the social and emotional health of students is more positively impacted by a traditional learning model,” Seder said.
At the same time, district officials have acknowledged the sacrifices that would need to be made from a safety perspective to bring students back full-time. Seder said “social distancing will be impacted” and students could sit as close to three feet apart, whereas before they were separated by at least six feet.
“The American Association of Pediatricians continues to share guidance that student desks can be positioned three-to-six feet apart provided students are wearing a mask,” Seder said. “With that being said, all students and staff are required to wear a mask during the school day. Mask breaks will still be available to students, but the process will be modified when students cannot maintain six feet of social distancing.”
Seder said several buildings have adjusted traffic-flow patterns and modified daily schedules to limit the number of students in the hallways at any given time. Lunch continues to be the “greatest challenge” for the district, Seder said, as students need to remove their masks to eat. The district has added seating areas and installed extra plexiglass barriers to prevent the spread of the virus in cafeterias, he said.
Transportation ridership is down considerably this school year, Seder said, with seating capacity in most buses hovering around 50 percent. This means most students should still be able to have their own seat on the bus, and will not have to share, despite the switch from hybrid to traditional. All students are still required to wear masks on the bus, Seder said.
“We believe the safety procedures we have in place, combined with the research and data that would suggest and support that students are less susceptible to contracting the virus, with fewer complications and quicker recovery process, were important components in the decision making process,” Seder said. “Wearing a mask and regular hand-washing, being it soap-and-water or hand sanitizers, will continue to be a priority.”
The district announced its decision to go traditional on Oct. 2, giving families nine days to decide whether or not they would choose to participate in the Digital Academy moving forward (this gave the district eight days to prepare before the second quarter began Oct. 19).
While Seder said he was initially unsure how the decision would affect Digital Academy enrollment, current numbers indicate a substantial drop-off from the first quarter. Only 500 students (roughly 13 percent of the district) enrolled in the academy going into the second quarter, as opposed to 800 (roughly 20 percent) at the beginning of the school year.
“I think parents find themselves in a similar situation as we have faced as a district – the unenviable challenge of weighing out the differences with regards to safety and educational impact,” Seder said. “We find ourselves looking back at the past nine weeks, and our individual experiences helped shape individual decisions. We are blessed to be able to provide several options for parents who fall on either side of that dilemma.”
Through the first nine weeks of the school year, Mount Vernon City Schools saw just five positive COVID-19 cases among students and staff (two students and three staff members). On Wednesday, the district announced its first positive case of the second quarter, a high school student.
With Mount Vernon returning to traditional instruction this week, all five Knox County school districts are now operating under the same model (albeit with some modifications). Centerburg, Danville, East Knox and Fredericktown have all held in-person classes five days per week since school began in August. None of these districts have recorded positive COVID-19 cases so far, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
The Knox County Career Center shifted to in-person instruction four days per week earlier this month, having seen no positive cases yet this school year.
Seder said Mount Vernon City Schools does not plan to reevaluate potential learning models after the second quarter, and is hoping to remain traditional through the end of the school year. The district’s ability to do so, however, will depend on its ability to contain the spread of the virus.
“We will constantly review current information and work closely with health and safety officials,” Seder said. “If we need to make periodic adjustments along the way, we will do so with the safety of everyone at the forefront of those decisions.”
Knox County remained ‘orange’ in the state’s Public Health Advisory System this week. It has seen a steady increase in COVID-19 cases this month, with Knox Public Health reporting 90 new cases so far in October, more than double the number reported in September. Mount Vernon Nazarene University has gone remote for one week in an attempt to curb an outbreak on campus.
