Decatur schools’ leadership propose a K-5 return to classroom in January

Meantime, grades 6-12 remain full time virtual, at least for the near future. The current pod program, which will remain active for now, currently has 185 students from the nine K-12 schools.

But the board didn’t vote on the plan Tuesday, and ultimately the final decision comes down to Superintendent David Dude, who may make an announcement as early as today (Dec. 9).

Dude left midway through Tuesday’s meeting because of what Board Chair Lewis Jones described as an “emergency,” and was not available for comment afterward.

The plan calls for students getting regrouped into “cohorts” of roughly 10 to 15 students per classroom. Due to mitigation procedures no classroom is allowed more than 15, although some may have fewer than 10. The cohort model means that some students likely get transferred off their current classroom roster.

Additionally, the “Wellness Wednesday” starts getting phased out, beginning with a half day of Wednesday academic instruction when students return.

On Wednesday morning (Dec. 9) the district sent an email survey to parents asking they choose one of four preferences:

1)I’d like my child to return to the classroom in in person? 2) I want to remain virtual; 3) I’d like to return in person but can remain virtual if needed; 4) I’d like to remain virtual but can return in person.

The survey should determine how many K-5s will return and for how many days a week along with individual classroom size. In an interview after the four-hour meeting Fehrman said, “The next step is for [Dude] to determine what metrics he wants to use to move forward. It could be number of positive cases per 100,000, percentage of positive cases, number of available hospital beds or any metrics used in the CDC’s return-to-school rubric.”

The plan was discussed at length by a board that remains divided on the timeline for returning students, with only Jones and Heather Tell unequivocally favoring a January return. The remaining three expressed considerably more caution.

Tuesday’s meeting was mostly virtual, though four board members attended in person along with Dude, several staffers and a lone reporter.

Nineteen parents joined the Zoom meeting and offered a rainbow of vitriolic commentary, with several directly calling out individual board members until Jones requested a halt to individual attacks.

Typical remarks aimed at the superintendent and board included “toxic leadership,” “catastrophic failure of leadership,” that their decisions (or lack of) were “disappointing from an equity perspective,” and another charged the board with pitting “neighbor against neighbor.”

Although the public comment was small compared to recent meetings, the numeric breakdown and sentiment likely comes close to reflecting the city at large: seven favored returning to the classroom, four want to remain virtual and four others gave no opinion and simply expressed rage.