North Pike may continue on its hybrid schedule through the end of this school year after school board members deadlocked on returning to a regular schedule without an open online option.
With Jamie Jackson absent, Chris Richardson made a motion in favor of Superintendent Dennis Penton’s recommendation to return to five-day attendance and end most online options. The district has all students on campus four days a week now, with one day of virtual attendance.
Board president Scott Campbell spoke in favor of the recommendation, but could not second the motion in his role.
Board members Etta Taplin and Freddie Deer both favored maintaining the hybrid schedule of four-day attendance and one day online, leaving no one to second Richardson’s motion.
“We’ve come this far like we have,” Deer said. “If we change now, we’re going to upset people.”
“The parents whose children are on the virtual plan made a conscious choice,” Taplin said. “I think in-person classes are best, but I don’t think it’s time to change.”
Penton said he was making the recommendation based on declining infection rates and the wider availability of vaccines, with most teachers scheduled to be vaccinated soon.
“We’ve always said that we would go in one direction or other based on data,” Penton said. “Now, the data is saying go back to normal. We’ll start next year as normal as possible, hopefully including all activities for students, but we’ll still need to monitor things.”
Taplin said she had received calls from teachers and parents, with sentiments on returning to normal or maintaining some caution about attendance due to COVID-19 “split down the middle.
“Most of our students have come back, but I don’t think we can not give our parents that option” of online instruction, Taplin said. “We need to do what’s best for everybody, but I don’t want us to push everybody too early. The (infection) numbers are down, but we need to keep wearing masks and distancing.”
Richardson said she believed the district had done well over the past year.
“It’s been a whole calendar year at this point,” she said. “A day is 20% of the school week. We can always revert back if we need to change.”
“If we add a day, we’re not going to increase the risk. All the students are already there,” Campbell said. “Ninety-five percent of our students are there, and they obviously want in-class instruction. The people I’ve talked to want five days a week. The ones that sending their kids four days a week want five days.”
Penton noted that the district had changed its attendance model several times during the past year.
“I think everyone realizes that virtual instruction is not equal,” he said. “We need to do what’s best, and we know what’s best, and we know about COVID. We’ll do the best we can, whatever the vote is.”
With no seconded motion to vote on, the status quo remains in place.
