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Sioux City School District officials explain what hybrid model of school looks like
Next week, Sioux City Community Schools will resume in-person learning for the first time since March.
Many modifications have been made to school buildings, classrooms, and education practices.
One of the most notable aspects to this modified school experience deals with capacity and social distancing.
“Only 50% of our on-site learners will be in a building at a given time. Our schools will be able to increase the distancing practices in classrooms, hallways, and community spaces,” said Superintendent Dr. Paul Gausman.
In classrooms, there might be rows of desks, seemingly not socially distant, but a closer looks show they are marked for specific days of the week, leaving the surrounding seats empty for the given student’s safety.
“Safety signage has been strategically placed in classrooms and throughout the building to reinforce healthy hand hygiene, social distancing reminders, and reminders on how to stop the spread of illness,” said Dr. Gausman.
Officials say if students or teachers were to get the coronavirus over those three weeks, contract tracing will be put in place.
If a student exhibits symptoms of COVID-19 after they have get to school, they will go to a special room officials are calling “caring rooms.”
“It’s important to us that we set aside this separate caring room for this. It’s really common in schools when we’re not in a pandemic and you have a student not feel well and they go to the office. Well the office is kind of the hub of the building and, should they have the virus, we certainly don’t want to place them there. That’s why we’ve created these segregated places called caring rooms,” said Gausman.
Dr. Gausman says once this three week trial-period is up, school officials will be able to assess how to move forward with schooling.