PORT ORCHARD — The final element of South Kitsap School District’s transition to a hybrid in-school-remote education model during the COVID-19 pandemic — integrating high schoolers — will be put into place on March 15.
That’s when students in ninth through 12th grade will begin the district’s SK Flex schedule of two days on campus and three days of remote learning.
South Kitsap High School Principal Dave Goodwin released a communication to students and parents Tuesday afternoon announcing the official start date of the flex program.
In the email letter, Goodwin said student classes will remain the same, although the instruction schedule will be shifted for all SKHS students. He said 1,552 high-school students will be returning two days a week for in-person learning, with 852 students continuing their remote learning all week.
“All SK Flex and SK Online students will receive ‘live’ teacher-led instruction two days a week for 80 minutes in each of their four classes with additional access to their teachers on Wednesdays to get extra help if needed,” Goodwin stated in the communication.
“Those with last names A-K will start off on Monday, March 15, and L-Z will follow on Tuesday, March 16. A-K will then be back on Thursday, March 18, and L-Z on Friday, March 19. This will be the alternating attendance pattern for the remainder of the school year if all goes well.”
Goodwin said that building a master schedule to accommodate all SKHS students in both in-person and remote learning models that allow access to the same teachers and programs “was extremely challenging.”
The principal said: “We made every effort to be flexible on allowing families who have contacted us to change their selection after the most recent parent survey deadline, however, we had to stop allowing changes for the first week of February in order to build the schedule based on the actual numbers at that time.”
He said no additional changes will be made between remote learning and in-person class moving forward.
Goodwin reminded students that in returning to an in-person learning environment, they will be “personally responsible for monitoring social distancing and following the mandatory mask rules.”
Details on the school’s planned March 10 freshman orientation for those returning for in-building instruction will be shared in the next few weeks, he said.
