Blended learning raises many issues, and we are having ongoing discussions with the employer about various issues that members have brought forward. We can report the following:
- It no longer seems that all elementary blended classes will end in January. Since the program was a response to parent demand for a blended option, and that demand is likely to continue, the District is no longer planning to require blended students to return to face-to-face in January. That is still the hope, and parents will be asked to decide (sometime before Winter Break) whether they want their children to return to regular classes. Some reorganization may be required at home schools as a result.
- Grade 8 and 9 Transitions classes in Secondary will likewise continue, at least for the second quarter. The goal is to get such students back to regular classes.
- The District has set aside staffing to create new divisions or open new sections to accommodate students who return to face-to-face learning.
- Six full-time Blended Learning Support Teacher positions will be posted (3 secondary, and 3 elementary) to support teachers working in blended learning. We are working on an agreement with the District to permit these positions to be open to teachers currently in other assignments, and to provide that they have a right to return to those assignments in the next school year.
- The STA has grieved the District’s failure to apply the class size and composition limits, or provide remedy, to blended learning classes.