School tests virtual learning plan
By Shelia Tomkins
A two-day trial run of an online learning plan took place for all grade levels on Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 23-24, at Clayton Ridge Community School. "Teachers, students and parents need to have this experience on a small scale before a possible shutdown," said Superintendent Shane Wahls. "We will gather feedback from parents, students and teachers in order to make the appropriate adjustments in the event that we would need to go fully online."
The online experiment will also allow for thorough sanitizing measures over the Thanksgiving holiday. "By utilizing these two days for virtual learning, we are able to deep clean the building and keep large groups of people apart for nine days, Nov. 21-29," said Supt. Wahls.
"As of now, our number of quarantined students is the lowest that it has been in three weeks," he noted on Nov. 20. "At this time we plan to continue face-to-face learning with elementary students when returning from Thanksgiving break, and the 6-12 campus would continue with hybrid learning — but as we all know this could change if the community spread would increase over break with family travel and gatherings," he said.