The Martinez Unified School District still plans to provide a “hybrid” combination of distance learning and in-person classroom learning sometime this spring, but distance learning will remain compulsory as long as Contra Costa County remains in the “purple tier” category in the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy plan COVID-19 response, according to a school district report.
Any in-person learning, likely as part of a “hybrid” plan for a mix of distance learning and in-person classroom instruction, will have to wait at least until the county remains in the less restrictive “red tier” for at least two weeks, the report said.
The district staff report, scheduled to be discussed at Monday night’s MUSD Board of Education meeting, noted several challenges for creating a hybrid learning schedule specifically at Alhambra High School. The school’s seven-period schedule does not lend itself to a simple block schedule, the report says, and hybrid schedules create issues for teachers unable to return to in-person learning due to health concerns and/or family caregiving obligations brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, among other considerations.
The Martinez district had originally planned to start “hybrid” learning in its lower elementary school grades in early January, but as with many Bay Area school districts, the “purple tier” under which eight of the nine Bay Area counties now fall may delay reopening plans in many districts.
Monday night’s school board meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.; watch the meeting by going to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChb9dQlztdEFdCYxXVxnWyw.