With COVID-19 still pressuring schools, Mountain Middle School will offer two separate learning models when students return Aug. 25 – an all online learning model and a blended model with in-school and at-home remote learning.
A survey of parents showed 85% wanted the blended learning model and 15% wanted the all-remote model, said Shane Voss, head of school.
Whether a student is in the blended learning model or the all-remote learning model, Voss said the content and the pace of learning will be the same.
“As a principal, I see this as a real opportunity to create ways to advance and reimagine education. We have a chance to imagine a better way, a way more aligned with the changing world and workplace,” he said.
Keeping content and the pace of learning consistent between models makes it easy for the school, which has 240 students, to provide five-day-a-week all-in-class learning or to move to an all-remote learning model depending on the epidemiological situation with COVID-19, Voss said.
“As a small, independent, public charter school, we can shift. We can pivot, and we have the agility to meet the ever-changing needs of the world,” he said.
Students will be placed in cohorts, with an average size of 12 per group, to minimize person-to-person contacts during the day. The maximum cohort size will be 15 students.
Moving students into smaller cohorts allows Mountain Middle to meet the state’s goal of striving to keep a 6-foot social distance.
Students will be split into Tuesday/Thursday or Wednesday/Friday cohorts for in-person learning. The remaining three days of the school week would be devoted to remote learning.
“Mountain Middle School has used project-based learning and the cohort model for over a decade now. And so this is kind of how we do business,” Voss said. “The state guidelines for COVID seek to simplify the school day with kids having fewer classes. That’s something we did a decade ago. We combined English and social studies into one concept, one class called humanities. And it’s been a big success for us.”
The school also will provide space for working families to send their children to the school during their three remote learning days for supervision and guidance on a space-available basis.
So far, 43 students are registered to be accommodated for space at Mountain Middle School during their remote learning days. The school has the available space to accommodate all of them.
Lunches will be served to cohorts in their classrooms and will be catered by five Durango restaurants, East by Southwest, Cuckoos Chicken House and Waterin’ Hole, Serious Texas Bar-B-Q, Bird’s and Homeslice Pizza.
parmijo@durangherald.com
