Pentwater school moves to more face-to face instruction.

Pentwater school moves to more face-to face instruction.

“It is also important to know that there is NO perfect way to run school during this pandemic that is going to work for everyone, but we are trying to meet the needs of as many students as we can.”
– Pentwater Public School Superintendent Scott Karaptian

By Allison Scarbrough, Editor.

PENTWATER — Pentwater Public School began the 2020-2021 school year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic with a “hybrid” learning platform — a blending of virtual and face-to face learning. However, the district recently announced that starting Monday, Oct. 5, there will be more face-to-face learning and less virtual instruction based on the results of a recent survey distributed throughout the district.

The small Pentwater district of 270 students began the unprecedented school year divided into two groups — A and B. Group A does face-to-face learning Monday and Tuesday, while Group B stays at home and performs virtual learning. Then on Thursday and Friday, Group B does face-to-face learning while Group A learns remotely. On Wednesday, all students do remote learning while the school is thoroughly sanitized.

Pentwater families also have the option to have 100 percent remote instruction.

Superintendent Scott Karaptian announced Monday, Sept. 28, that students will move to face-to-face learning four days per week — Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday will remain a virtual learning/cleaning day.

The following are portions of Karaptian’s post on the school’s Facebook page Monday evening, Sept. 28:

“I would like all of you to know that the school board and administration does and has heard the concerns of many families, students and staff regarding the difficulties of the current blended/hybrid learning platform. As I still believe that this was the safest way to open the school with so many unknowns in opening schools during a pandemic, it is also important to hear from our educational community that there were many educational, emotional and social concerns that could not be addressed adequately in the blended/hybrid format. It is also important to know that there is NO perfect way to run school during this pandemic that is going to work for everyone, but we are trying to meet the needs of as many students as we can.

“Below is the data from the Learning Environment Survey that was released Friday afternoon to gather opinions on whether or not people felt that the current blended/hybrid learning format was supported and whether or not there would be any support to move toward all students meeting four days face-to-face with a full remote option for those who did not feel comfortable with the all face-to-face option.

“The first question asked if families were in support of the current blended/hybrid model: whether people felt that it was working; working but could be better; or not working at all. There were 162 respondents and 54/162 felt it is not working at all. 77/162 felt it was working but could be better and 31/162 felt that it was working well.

“The second question asked how much support there was for keeping the current blended/hybrid model or trying something completely different: 84/162 respondents would like to try something completely different while 78/16 were in favor of keeping what we have and try to make it better.

“The third question asked the amount of support there would be if Pentwater chose to move to have ALL students meet four days face-to-face and one day where everyone is full remote: 131/162 are in favor of this move while 31/162 are not.

“The final question of the survey asked families how they would choose to have their students participate, either in the ALL four days face-to-face and one day full remote option or have their student(s) participate in the all full-remote option: 144/162 families stated that they would have their students participate in the ALL four days face-to-face and one all remote day, while 18/162 stated that they would have their students participate in the full remote option.

“With the knowledge of the above information, the district will be moving toward an ALL student, four days face-to-face and one day full remote learning format beginning Monday, Oct. 5, 2020. We will continue with our current schedule with students meeting face-to-face on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday with Wednesday being a full remote day for all students. On Wednesdays, teachers will make contact with students who are on the everyday full remote schedule, being available for questions for all students, as well as using this time to plan, upload video supports and information into Google Classroom. We will also use Wednesday as a cleaning and disinfecting day while having the building student-free for at least 24 hours.

“With this being said, it is important to remember to self-check your students every morning before sending them to school, if they are not feeling well, please keep them home.”

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