By Myrna Trauntvein
TN Correspondent
The Board of Education reviewed the calendar for the 2021-2022 school year. “During the 2019-2020 school year, Juab School District moved to a Friday Digital Learning day,” said Dr. Kodey Hughes, superintendent. “We have anecdotal data to show individual successes from this school year but acknowledge that Juab School District can do more with our Friday time to support students and teachers.” The start date on the calendar might need adjustment, said Hughes. The county fair may have been planned for the days that school was scheduled to start. “As it is, school will start in August and will be out before Memorial Day,” he said. For the District calendar for the upcoming 2021-2022 year, the school district will incorporate lessons learned this year, Hughes said. “Each student needs a safe place to be,” said Hughes. “With both parents working every day, a Friday lunch is important.” In the proposed calendar, the district will incorporate a five days a week schedule with a shortened and targeted learning day each Friday. Busses will be running and picking students up, and food service will take place for each school building during all five days. Friday school operation times will be placed from 8:10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. “Juab School District will continue incorporating a select number of Digital Learning Days throughout the calendar to provide the continuation of development and learning opportunities noted this year during the pandemic calendar,” he said. Reviewing the wins and new ideas that were learned over these past few months and with the lessons learned, the district can improve and adapt as schools move forward, Hughes said. The Juab School District will be moving back to a five-day schedule but with some significant changes. “This is a change,” said Dale Whitlock, board president, “usually we are worried about when spring break will be or how many days we will get off for Christmas.” Cassie Beutler, board member, said she had never had so many e-mails about a single subject. Many parents favored still having Fridays as a digital learning day. Hughes said he had received about 68 emails himself. “Statistics show that on Fridays we are only having 30 percent participation,” said Hughes. “That means that 70 percent are not. We want to engage students.” Beutler said she wanted her students to learn all they could so that they would be ready for college. Linda Hanks, board member, joined the meeting via Zoom because she was not feeling well. She said that there had been some learning loss, which was a perspective of the state board of education. The state legislature was considering one-time money to help with those concerns. While it was said that learning was continuing at high levels, students had not been able to meet all CORE requirements. “I am a proponent of face to face learning,” said Hanks. Janet Ware, board member and a former elementary school principal, said that the state required that students spend 180 days in face to face learning. That equated to 190 hours of classroom instruction and while the state had waived that requirement for COVID-19, face to face instruction still provided students with the best learning experience. She would support a 200 day school year, she said. “Friday is a school day,” said Tracy Olsen, board vice-president. “We provide learning opportunities every day,” said Hughes. “Friday is an important day.” The one thing that had become obvious on the Friday digital learning day was that it was good for students needing extra help in a subject. They could meet face to face with a teacher and get the help they needed. Juab students had returned to mostly face to face learning this fall and most parents said their child’s school did a good job providing remote instruction last spring despite the challenges. “Elementary teachers said that what they had gained was interventions,” said Hughes. “There is a whole array of possibilities on Friday afternoon. Some need extensions and some need interventions.” He said teachers had been under insurmountable pressure. Because of that, they had cherry picked what they would have done in class face to face and had worked to make the best learning possible under the circumstances. “What we have done is picked for the best bang for our buck,” he said. Parents have the power, they always have had. However, the district had to make certain that the education being provided was as rich as possible. Some things had been missed, he said. The district innovation center was one of those. “If we want four days of face to face learning and one digital day,” said Hughes, “we have to petition the state.” Those petitions had trade offs. For example, when he was at Eureka, they petitioned for the four-day school week. That was done because so many students were involved in activities that took them long days of travel. The trade off, he said, was that they had to meet earlier in the morning at 7:55 a.m. and stay longer until 3:35 p.m. Education time was held harmless, he said. State tests were canceled last spring and new data is not available to determine if there is a learning loss or if, in spite of the pandemic, students have learned well. Juab School District is intent on validating the learner.
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