Decatur City School Approves Back To School Plan

Back to school plan includes choices virtual school, blended learning, and traditional learning.

As we mentioned -- the decatur city school board approved a plan to return to school.

The plan gives parents three learning options.

They include -- virtual school... blended learning... or traditional learning.

But -- it's also giving parents more flexibility compared to other districts.

Waay31's megan reyna joins us live now after speaking with the superintendent tonight on how this plan keeps both students and teachers safe?

Right here is that school re- entry plan approved by the board tonight.

But as superintendent michael douglass was explaining to me -- this plan could very much change throughout this pandemic.

And since this is a fluid situation -- the plan is designed to give parents the opportunity to change their minds throughout the school year as well.

Natz: "all approve, say i, i" decatur city schools rolling out a re-opening plan that puts the fate of the school year in the hands of the alabama department of health.

Nats it is using the morgan county covid-19 advisory levels to determine the number of precautions it will implement.

There are four risk levels -- very high, high, moderate, and low.

Douglass says:"the only level that would put us in full virtual is the very high, which we're in right now."

Come august 12-- the first day of school -- douglass is hoping the level is brought down to at least high... which does allow in-person instruction for most students.

Regardless of the level right now -- parents still have to make a decision whether or not to enroll their kids in virtual or blended learning.

However -- the district is allowing students to move from in-person learning to virtual at any time.

Douglass says:"we wanted to make this as easy as possible on our parents and our community, and tough on us.

" douglass says the district is not only taking into account parent's concerns -- but the faculty's as well.

Douglass says:"we rolled out our plan to teachers, and you can't have school if you don't get the teachers to come to work."

Douglass says 80 percent of his teachers have agreed to teach in-person.

However -- it took some adjusting by the district to get that many teachers on board.

The main deciding factor was a masking policy.

All students and faculty will be required to wear face masks on buses and inside the school... unless they can properly social distance.

Douglass says:"all of my teachers that don't feel comfortable, they're going to serve in that virtual blended role.

" parents have until monday the 27th to decide if they want their kids in the virtual or blended learning program.

Douglass says:"but regardless if you choose in- person or you want to stay at home virtually, we're ready."

This plan also addresses what will happen if a student gets sick at school.

It states parents will receive a notification and its possible multiple students ... a classroom... or a school could transition to virtual learning.

However -- they will make the decision based off of the alabama department of public health's guidance.

Reporting live in decatur mr waay 31