With City Schools of Decatur delaying indefinitely a return to in-person learning for K-12 students, the district is re-invigorating its Learning Pod Program to assist families during the virtual learning era.
In late September CSD announced all grades would return to the classroom over the three weeks preceding Thanksgiving. But after vocal opposition from some parents and teachers, along with two public protests, the district delayed the return of teachers and students to, in the words of Superintendent David Dude, “a date to be determined, no earlier than Jan 5.”
According to an August/September poll of about 4,000 respondents there was nearly a 50-50 split between those wanting to stay in virtual or online learning and those favoring a return to the classroom. In a recent interview Dude said, “I think there’s actually three groups: the group that absolutely wants to stay virtual, the group that absolutely wants to return to be in person, then there’s a large middle group that is flexible and will go in either direction.”
Learning pods essentially formalize what some parents have done on their own the past seven months since Decatur students last saw the classroom. Dude envisions one pod as a collective of 8 to 10 students with a supervising adult and meeting at one of the district’s schools.
“We are going to hire some more people [to fill the supervisory roles] because obviously most of our [staff] are tied up with other things,” Dude said.
“This is basically childcare,” he added. “It’s a way for families who need someone to supervise their child, and who need someplace to take them while they’re at work. The students are still doing their learning virtually, still doing everything like they would be doing at home, they just happen to be in one of our schools being supervised.”
Virtual learning work days are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
Residents can learn more and submit a request for pod consideration by going to District Learning Pods. Dude said he originally anticipated needing 10 pods total, but with in-person learning still on hold that could increase. All requests are subject to a waiting list depending on capacity.
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