PORT TOWNSEND — Most Salish Coast Elementary School students will return to full-time in-person learning beginning in mid-April.
Port Townsend School District officials announced the final updated plan Tuesday.
The district has been adapting to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines that the state adopted which allow students to be within 3 feet of each other as long as masking and ventilation protocols are followed.
School districts in Chimacum, Quilcene and Brinnon had yet to make any changes to their learning models as of Wednesday.
The newest update has all Salish Coast third- through fifth-grade blended learning (both in-person and remote education) students returning to the classroom five days a week starting April 14, with asynchronous learning — assigned work without instruction — on April 12-13, said Sarah Rubenstein, district communications director, in a press release.
Optional Education Program (OPEPO) students also will add more in-person class time. While the students will continue in the same classrooms with the same teachers on Tuesdays and Fridays, they also will attend in-person school from 8:15 a.m. to 2:50 p.m. Wednesdays.
Their first additional Wednesday in-person learning time will be April 14. That means OPEPO students will have in-person school this Friday and April 13, 14 and 16, Rubenstein said.
Those students who have been attending school completely through remote learning will remain online only.
There is limited capacity to add additional students in blended learning. Current distance learners can contact the school to be placed on a waiting list for in-person learning by calling 360-379-4535 or emailing Debi Munro dmunro@ptschools.org.
The most recent changes are in addition to those reported last month.
• Salish Coast Elementary blended-model students in kindergarten through second grade will return to full-time in-person education five days per week beginning April 12.
• Blue Heron Middle School sixth- through eighth-grade blended-learning students will attend four days a week, with Wednesdays being an asynchronous learning day, beginning April 19.
Two additional asynchronous learning days will be April 12-13, Rubenstein said.
Blue Heron distance learners will have four days of Zoom instruction each week, with Wednesdays as an asynchronous learning day. Students who attend Wednesday intervention will continue to meet every Wednesday, Rubenstein said.
April 15 and 16 will still be A/B cohort days, she added.
Parents and guardians of Blue Heron distance-learning students who want to change to blended are encouraged to email Kirsten Bledsoe at kbledsoe@ptschools.org, and the district will work to accommodate depending on available space, Rubenstein said.
• Port Townsend High School students who choose to attend in-person classes two days per week will do so either Monday and Thursday or Tuesday and Friday.
The days are split into Group A and Group B, but they are not cohorts that stay together the entire day; rather, the students will learn through their typical six-period day while in person, and they will work through teacher work lists the three days they’re not attending, Rubenstein said.
The full schedule and group lists can be found at https://tinyurl.com/PDN-PTHSschedule.
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Jefferson County reporter Zach Jablonski can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 5, or at zjablonski@peninsuladailynews.com.
