John Glenn students return to the classroom this week, but not all of them at the same time. Superintendent Christopher Winchell says the school corporation officially switches to its hybrid plan today, with schools at 50-percent capacity.
“We’ll have one group there Monday-Tuesday,” he explains. “We’ll shut the buildings down on Wednesdays to students for sanitation purposes. Then we’ll have a second group there Thursday-Friday, and then we’ll have the buildings sanitized in a similar way on Saturday.” On days when they aren’t in the buildings, students will attend class virtually.
The state’s latest recommendations suggest that even places with moderate-to-high community spread of COVID-19, such as St. Joseph County, should offer elementary school classes fully in-person. But Winchell says that won’t impact John Glenn’s hybrid learning plan. “We appreciate those organizations putting that information out, but it is contradictory to the directions we’ve been given here from St. Joe County Health Department,” Winchell says. “About 48 hours before the Governor’s Office released that plan, we had been given permission by St. Joe County Health to move forward with our Yellow Hybrid.”
Winchell says John Glenn is eager to have schools back at full capacity, but that will depend on how well things go during hybrid learning.
