- November 23, 2024
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Families in the School District of Manatee County will be able to change their learning modality for their students.
Parents still can choose between e-learning, full-time brick and mortar and a hybrid schedule, which consists of being on campus two days per week and at home for e-learning three days per week. Any new choices — for example, moving from hybrid learning to on-campus learning — would go into effect early in November.
Parents are being asked to fill out a survey for each of their students for their individual schools to inform the school whether they are choosing to switch modalities. The deadline to fill out the survey is 5 p.m. today.
Cynthia Saunders, the superintendent of the district, told members of the School Board of Manatee County during a board meeting Oct. 13, that the district expects in November about 80% of elementary students will be on campus full time, about 65% of middle school students will be on campus and "a little under" 50% of high schoolers will be back on campus.
Saunders said it will take time for schools to adjust students' schedules and teachers' modality assignments. Students might have different teachers as a result of the changes.
"If schools can get it done quicker (than early in November) or get students' schedules done much quicker than that, they will and they will notify those individual families," Saunders said. "Remember, we have to adjust the teachers because if teachers were teaching e-learning, and we're bringing back more students into the building, we of course have to bring teachers back into the building to accommodate that so we do not have overcrowded classes. We want to make sure that we have everything balanced."
Saunders said the hybrid schedule will be provided on an individual school basis if schools have enough students requesting hybrid to schedule the modality.
Saunders said the district has seen a decline in the amount of parents requesting a hybrid schedule.