South Huntington Schools to Offer Full-time Return to Classes

The South Huntington school district will begin bringing high school students back to fulltime in-person classrooms starting Monday.

Students in 12th grade at Walt Whitman High School will be able to choose full-time, remain with the current hybrid model or follow a completely remote schedule.  The progressive plan will then expand to 11th graders and on down through sixth grade.

Superintendent Dr.David Bennardo said the district would “measure the health-related metrics at regular intervals with consideration given to returning the junior class to full-time instruction on Monday, April 12th, with further considerations to the remaining grades at regular intervals.

Whitman principal John Murphy said of the return to classes, “It’s been a daunting task for all the staff members. But it’s exciting that we’re going to have them back and for the students to have the experiences that they’ve been missing.””

He said that the district is “Making sure that everybody in the school community is safe” and that there has been no cases of Covid-19 transmission from student to student.”

Before the Board of Education voted Wednesday night on the plan, the district had been surveying parents about whether they have their children return to school fulltime. The goal was to assess busing and resourcing needs, not take a vote in what has become a hotly debated topic for many districts.

Based on that survey, a return to full-time classes was by far the most popular choice, with 217 of 350 responses in favor. Another 51 preferred fully remote, and 82 preferred remaining with the hybrid model, preferring a schedule of attending school some days while remaining at home on others.

Instructional Models Return for Website 3 18 2021

 

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