Putnam Parents Must Make Virtual/In-Person Decision By Sept 18

The Putnam County Schools will ask parents to make a final decision on in-person or virtual learning by September 18.

School Board members unanimously voted Thursday to the change in the system’s reopening plan. Director of Schools Corby King said the system needs to better control its teaching resources by settling on a strategy.

“When students make that move from in-person to remote, it requires several schedule changes,” King said. “It doesn’t just affect that one student or that one teacher’s classroom. It affects our numbers and the student-class ratios. It impacts many students’ schedules. So lots of changes have to take place.”

In the original reopening plan, parents could make a choice each nine weeks. King said the system has found that the switching back and forth to be more difficult to deal with than expected.

“The first three weeks have kind of been like a revolving door,” King said. “Some made that move two and three times before the principal said ‘enough is enough.'”

He said the last three weeks have shown all the changing of schedules to be a negative in trying to move forward this school year. Further, King said the system needs to do a better job of helping its teachers who are juggling both types of teaching.

“I do like the fact we gave families the choice,” School Board Member Kim Cravens said. “It’s not that we want to take that choice away. But we have to utilize our resources to the best of our abilities and I’ve talked to a lot of teachers and we have really put a lot on our teachers. There’s got to be some kind of balance.”

The date gives the system two weeks before fall break to allow for final schedule adjustments in trying to pocket virtual learners in distinct class periods. Administrators and counselors would have time to finalize schedules so that the system could be ready to go after fall break.

Some 2,300 students are currently learning virtually in Putnam County.