Woodland Hills considering hybrid plans for students, sends surveys to families

Woodland Hills School District is considering several approaches to bringing students back into the classroom, Superintendent James Harris said Monday.

The district, which serves about 5,000 students, sent surveys to families Monday afternoon to gauge how comfortable parents would be with in-person learning.

The survey includes questions about the number of students a family has, what grade level the student is in and how comfortable parents are with different learning models – including the policies of mask-wearing, temperature checks and bus capacity restrictions that are likely to come with them.

The survey also introduces three or four different hybrid learning scenarios.

“We would like to have students back when it’s safe, and we would like to figure out the best hybrid solution to do it,” Harris said.

Woodland Hills has operated almost completely remotely since last March. Around 100 students who had special needs and a dozen or so English language learners were able to return to buildings.

Initially, Harris said, the district is looking to bring younger students back, eventually followed by middle and high-schoolers. The goal comes after last week’s announcement from the Pennsylvania Department of Health recommending that schools offer hybrid or blended learning to elementary students and others even in areas of substantial community spread.

“We figured it was a good time to take another look at what we’re doing,” Harris said.

The ultimate decision for when and how students will return to schools will depend on what data is gleaned from the surveys, Harris said. The district had sent out similar forms in August and found that support for in-person learning was mostly split – after a holiday surge in covid-19 cases and amid the rollout of two promising vaccines, though; it’s hard to predict what the new results will be.

The district will collect survey responses until the end of the week and will start analyzing the results next week. The results, along with discussions at the parent meetings and in collaboration with administration and the teacher’s union, will help the district come up with a “game plan,” Harris said.

Harris said the district also has to account for teachers’ health concerns and a severe shortage of substitute teachers to make sure buildings will be staffed enough to bring students back successfully.

“Going 100% virtual, at least we were consistent in what we were doing and parents could plan accordingly,” he said. “Now in trying to go back, we have to make sure that our staff members can come in for the next few months to cover their classes.”

When students can finally return, Harris said teachers will surely move a bit slower through material, allowing kids to get re-acclimated to the school environment. The goal, he said, is to give them at least two months in the classroom during this school year. Meanwhile, he said, the district is considering an unofficial extension of the school year, to offer summer programming in an attempt to mitigate some of the learning loss that has occurred in the last 10 months.

“This year will forever have an asterisk,” he said.