Hybrid Learning Postponed In The SRVUSD: School Officials

SAN RAMON, CA — The San Ramon Valley Unified School District was set to have students requesting a hybrid model of learning go back to school part-time last Tuesday. However, with coronavirus cases rising in California, this has been brought to a halt.

“Our best learning environment is everyone in class with their teacher, but it has to be safe,” SRVUSD Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Debra Petish, said.

Originally when the district was preparing to open for this semester, students had to declare as either hybrid or remote. The spike in COVID cases has caused some to switch their decision, like Iron Horse Middle School eighth grader Jennifer Edwards.

“If I were to go back, even though I could be following the rules to stay safe, other people might not,” Edwards said, noting that the process to change her decision was fairly easy, and only took one email to her school.

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“We really want to be able to accommodate as many requests as we can but we have to draw a line,” Petish said about students asking to alter their declarations. Since counselors have finalized the new schedules, students now have to be put on a waiting list in order to make this change.

Before the hybrid learning plan was put on hold, students throughout the district were able to go on campus in small groups for tutoring, English language help, or various other reasons. According to Petish, the district would like to get these groups back on campus as soon as possible, but it is not currently an option.

When hybrid learning is instated, Petish said that the plan that the district had in place will largely remain the same.

“We’re constantly reevaluating our protocols,” she said, adding that it is unlikely any protocols will change in major ways.

According to the Board of Education meeting on Dec. 15, the district will not move to hybrid learning until Contra Costa County reverts back to the red tier of the COVID-19 scale. But starting this semester, students’ classes will still be separated into fully remote, hybrid, and video conference, for both remote and hybrid students.

“My schedule didn't change which was a big relief,” California High School math teacher Janice Saiki said. “I want to make sure that [the group of students now joining my class] transition is as smooth as possible.”

Although schedules are changing for some, students like Cal High sophomore Alex Vanier are hopeful that most teachers and students have gotten in the swing of online learning by now.

“I hope that this semester will be more controlled,” Vanier said. “First semester was a lot of testing and trying things out.”

Students who did opt to stay hybrid are now left wondering when they will be able to return to partial in-person learning, and are eager to do so.

“There’s something about in-class interactions that helps me [learn],” Cal High senior Jude Lee said, who declared as hybrid and now hopes that the class of 2021 can still have a graduation this year.

In high school, whether or not teachers would go hybrid relied on how many teachers were needed in that subject based on student declarations, which teachers had medical issues requiring them to stay home, which volunteered to come back, and numerous other factors creating a tiered system, according to Cal High history teacher Anja Wheeler.

Now that first semester has come to a close, across the district people have experienced the challenges of remote learning.

“It’s like asking a swim coach to swim without a pool,” Wheeler said, in regards to what it’s been like to teach without a classroom.

As second semester begins, there is hope that hybrid learning will begin soon, but only if COVID cases in Contra Costa go down. For now, students and teachers will remain in remote learning, and continue to try and make the best out of it.

“I’m hoping that everyone realizes we did [push back the hybrid start date] to keep everyone as safe and secure as possible,” Petish said.