Port Orchard secondary students could return to campus early February

Kitsap School District plans on returning students to classrooms

Kitsap School District officials are planning how and when to return middle and high school students to classrooms in the following weeks.

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. - More kids across our region are moving towards returning to some type of in-person, classroom instruction. Beginning next week the South Kitsap School District invites third, fourth and fifth grade students back to classrooms in a hybrid model that also includes distanced learning.  In early February, middle and high school students may also return to campus.

The challenges facing district officials and teachers reveal in unforeseen and complicating ways. One concern the size of South Kitsap High School. The number of students and staff expected to return to the campus could make separating cohorts difficult, said district officials. In some circumstances, students may be learning in a classroom while their instructor leads via webcam. That possibility left school board members pondering the value for students should that scenario unfold.

For 15-year-old sophomore Tristan Powell, he would rather be learning in a classroom.

"The older curriculum is better," he said," But, the one they made for home is a good system."

Powell would normally learn at the South Kitsap High School campus. The pandemic forced his studies to occur at home. Providing a safe way to resume classroom instructions fall on school district officials.

"No matter what, we are going to disappoint people," said district Superintendent Tim Winter during a board meeting last Wednesday.

Officials must also consider the number instructors available to teach in classrooms. Some will continue working from home due to health or other concerns, and that reality left officials considering the benefit for students.

"There will be some students who will be coming to school and sitting in class and their teacher will be zooming remotely," said Winter.

Instructor April Emerson said her classroom walls remain adorned with projects completed by last year’s pupils – a reminder of all that was behind when her students had to shift abruptly to learning from home.

When asked what message she could share with her students months afterwards, she beamed, "Man, I miss you. I miss you terribly."

Emerson says while she wants to see her students return to classroom instruction, it should only happen if their physical and psychological welfare was a top priority. The same goes for her colleagues.

"Every single one of them has a unique set of concerns and considerations that have to be taken in and thought about as we go about taking every little step back to getting our kids back into the classroom," she said.

The countdown is on, though. In a matter of weeks kids from middle and high schools across the district are planned to return to class, but only if infection rates stay within guidelines.

Powell says he would rather learn from home if going back to class meant interacting with a teacher through a webcam.

"It sounds probably worse than if we had all been on zoom," he said.

School board officials plan to meet Saturday and Monday as details are considered.  

Should pandemic infection rates surpass guidelines, expansion could be paused or rolled back to distance learning.