SUSD Middle, High Schools Will Offer In-Person Learning

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — Scottsdale middle and high school students will soon be able to go to school for a full day of learning for the first time since March 2020.

The Scottsdale Unified School District's governing board voted 3-2 Tuesday night to reopen for full in-person learning when schools return from spring break on March 15. The decision was made in accordance with new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the district said in a news release.

Prior to the decision to reopen, the district has been conducting weekly, school-by-school analyses of coronavirus cases on all 28 of its campuses. The district's middle and high schools have been able to offer partial-day, in-person learning since October 2020. Elementary and special education students have been receiving full days of instruction since September 2020.

“There really isn’t another opportunity to do this if we don’t do it at the beginning of the fourth quarter,” SUSD Superintendent Dr. Scott Menzel told the board. “It just doesn’t make sense from an implementation standpoint. Because we’ve adopted school-by-school metrics with automatic return-to-virtual-learning thresholds for middle schools and high schools, I feel like we’ve put in place a mechanism to ensure that if there was a spike as a result of moving to the full day, that we immediately react, and have options."

The district said it has been working toward a goal of a return to full in-person learning for months and the vote came prior to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's Wednesday executive order that will require all schools in the state to return to the classroom by March 15.

Menzel said that several factors allowed the district's schools to fully reopen, including the vaccination of the majority of its teachers and staff, public health data that indicates coronavirus cases are rare among young students and the successful return to the classroom seen in neighboring school districts.

Recent SUSD survey results revealed students, teachers and parents had mixed feelings about returning to the classroom full-time before the pandemic has reached its end. Approximately 52 percent of parents preferred to stay on the current 2/3 of a day schedule and 44 percent said full days should be offered. About 425 middle and high school teachers who responded to the survey, and 84 percent said they preferred to keep with the current 2/3 schedule as well.

The district said that mitigation efforts like mask-wearing, physical distancing and hand washing will be critical to the reopening's success. It is also considering conducting COVID testing at schools.

The decision comes as Arizona continues to see a decline in new coronavirus cases, deaths and hospitalizations. The state health department reported 1,284 new cases and 29 additional deaths Wednesday.