The Fort Dodge Community School District is not scrambling as much as other districts, trying to come up with an alternative.

“For the most part, our plan will remain the same with the exception of our hybrid model,” said FDCSD Superintendent Jesse Ulrich.

At the beginning of last week, the district released its three-model return-to-learn plan for the fall. The first model is for all students to be going to school every day for instruction. The second is for in the event the COVID-19 situation worsens and students have to go to virtual, at-home learning full time. The third model was a hybrid model where students would be divided into two groups, with Group A attending in-person classes on Mondays and Tuesdays, while Group B attends on Thursdays and Fridays, with Wednesdays being a buffer day for deep cleaning the school buildings.

However, with the governor’s directive that at least half of instruction must be in-person, the FDCSD will have to reassess its hybrid learning model.

“There are varying ways of doing that hybrid model,” Ulrich explained. “Maybe students are coming week by week. Maybe we rotate Wednesdays, those types of things. But we’re working through that now, creating a more efficient hybrid model that would meet the needs of our students and our teachers.”

Under the governor’s recent proclamation, school districts must receive permission from the Iowa Department of Education, in consultation with the Iowa Department of Public Health, to temporarily move to a primarily remote learning model, or to temporarily close a school or classroom.

“What we are more concerned about is school leaders need the authority to immediately close a classroom or a wing of a building if there is a COVID outbreak, so that we can do contact tracing and quarantine as necessary following CDC guidance,” Ulrich said. “The governor’s proclamation appears to require a waiver from the Iowa Department of Public Health to even close a classroom. That’s troublesome and conflicts with local control in emergency policies.”

The superintendent said the district is awaiting further guidance to clarify that directive.

Ulrich said the district’s plan has always been to work closely with Webster County Public Health, IDPH and UnityPoint Health to “make sure that we as a community are keeping our community safe,” while at the same time “balancing that with having the central purpose of educating children.”

Reynolds’ proclamation does authorize parents to select remote learning if they believe it is the best option for their family.

For the past several weeks, the FDCSD has been asking parents to fill out an online survey available on the district’s website, fdschools.org, that asks specific questions about the family’s educational needs.

“We are using that survey to help us formulate more options for students and be able to provide them with the best options possible to still receive an education,” Ulrich said.

Of the parents who have completed the survey thus far, Ulrich said about 15% have indicated they wish to have their student or students utilize a remote learning opportunity.

That survey will be available on the district’s website through the end of the week.

The FDCSD will also be hosting a series of virtual return-to-learn family forums for students and parents to ask questions about the district’s plans for this fall. The forums will be held over Zoom and information will be available through the district’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/fdcsd.

The elementary family forum will be July 30 at 5:15 p.m. The middle school family forum will be July 30 at 6:30 p.m. And the senior high family forum will be Aug. 4 at 5:15 p.m.

With the governor’s new guidance just being released a few days ago, Ulrich said the district’s leaders are mainly still “digesting” the guidance and waiting for clarification expected on Aug. 1 on what it means for Fort Dodge schools.

“How is exposure going to be defined in a school setting?” Ulrich said. “When a student is diagnosed with COVID, what does that do for the rest of the classroom and that teacher? Those are all going to be important components for when that guidance comes.”