Medford School District releases reopening plan

MEDFORD, Ore. – The Medford School District announced its back-to-school plan for students.

Here’s the breakdown: kindergartners and 1st-grade students will return four days a week starting February 22nd.

2nd and 3rd graders for four days as well, starting February 25th.

Wednesdays will involve remote learning.

Grades 4 through 6 begin March 1st on a hybrid, two days a week schedule.

Also following that hybrid, two-day model is middle school, which will start March 29th.

That same date marks the start for North and South Medford High School students but with every other Wednesday in person.

Central Medford High School students will begin in-person learning, tentatively on February 22nd.

There are student orientations at each level that begin before the previously mentioned dates.

MSD sent out the following letter to parents and students:

Greetings, MSD Families!

As you know, the state is now allowing us to return students to school buildings as long as we follow rigorous health and safety guidance. It is with much excitement and anticipation that I share some of the details of our plans to urgently and responsibly transition students to in-person learning.

We will immediately begin increasing opportunities for students to learn on campus during the transition (Hybrid Ramp-In), while planning to have all elementary students back in school starting February 22 and all secondary students back in school the Monday after Spring Break, March 29.

Our plan will be centered on prioritizing health and safety for all by following the guidance outlined in our safety standards. Please know if you plan to attend in-person (and we hope you do!), we will be asking families to agree to a social contract that will protect our friends and community that includes wearing face coverings as well as practicing physical distancing and hand-washing.

Here is our plan:

Timeline

Elementary:

Kindergarten – Grade 3:

All Day, Four Days a Week (Mon., Tues., Thurs., Fri.)

Wednesday, Minimum of Two-Hours Synchronous Remote Learning

Grades K-1 begins February 22

Grades 2-3 begins February 25

Student Orientations begin February 16

Grade 4 – Grade 6:

Hybrid, A/B Schedule (Mon., Thurs. OR Tues., Fri.)

Wednesday, Minimum of Two-Hours Synchronous Remote Learning

Grades 4-6 begins March 1

Student Orientations begin February 22

Middle School:

Hybrid, A/B Schedule (Mon., Thurs. or Tues., Fri.)

Wednesday, CDL Support Days

Full Hybrid Begins March 29

Orientations and Hybrid Ramp-In Begins February 16

High School:

North Medford HS and South Medford HS

Hybrid, A/B Schedule (Mon., Thurs. or Tues., Fri.)

Every Other Wednesday In-Person

Full Hybrid Begins March 29

Orientations and Hybrid Ramp-In Begins February 16

Central Medford High School:

In-Person (Mon.-Fri.)

Tentative Start Feb. 22

What does Hybrid learning look like for students?

On the days a student is not scheduled to learn at school, students in the hybrid learning model will be taking the concepts that they learned in the classroom with the teachers and applying and/or demonstrating their learning through independent assignments, quizzes, projects, and/or research. There may be days where a school schedules a live teacher-led period (for example, Wednesdays at the elementary level), or opportunities for check-ins with a teacher for extra support.

Full Online Learning, Busing, and After School Care

We understand some families desire to maintain their connections with their community schools, even if their students don’t plan to return for in-person instruction. However, in order to ensure we are offering the highest quality learning opportunities for students, we will have only one instructional model at our schools. The one school that will offer full online learning, will be the Medford Online Academy (MOA), which will be the option for families who don’t want their students to return to in-person learning. MOA was created and designed for online instruction, and is taught by local teachers! We are prepared to add staffing to MOA to accommodate increased demand based on the return to in-person instruction. If families wish to enroll at MOA, they should fill out this transfer form. This form needs to be completed no later than January 29 in order for us to ensure there is adequate staff for our students.

We also need to know if your student plans to ride a bus to school and if you need after-school. Please let us know by filling out this Intent to Ride Form and this After-School Care Form. Getting this information ahead of time will allow us to design bus routes to accommodate physical distancing and support our child care providers as they design programs off our new model.

FAQs

We know many of you have questions and please know more information is to come. If you have questions, please peruse our FAQs, reach out to your principal, or email us at [email protected].

We know that there will be some difficult decisions for some of you to make in the next couple of weeks. Please know we are here to support you and we continue to be honored to serve your students, in all learning models!

Gratefully,

Bret Champion
Superintendent