Canyons District to Move to Blended Learning Model
In response to rising COVID-19 counts, the Canyons Board of Education on Tuesday approved a plan to transition to four days of classroom learning with Friday reserved for remote, or independent, learning.
The new, blended learning schedule will take effect starting Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, which will give families time to adjust their schedules. It will apply to all students.
In-person learners will attend school according to their regular schedules, Monday through Thursday. There will be no early-out or late start days. Friday will be a planning, collaboration and student-consultation day for teachers and a day of independent study for students. Online learners will continue with their online learning Monday through Thursday and use Friday to do independent work as assigned by their teacher.
The temporary calendar change comes in response to rising COVID-19 case counts in the communities CSD serves. Three of the District’s five traditional high schools have transitioned to online learning, and more than 1,700 students across the District have been placed on quarantine due to their coming in close contact with someone in their community who has tested positive for the disease.
Principals on Tuesday testified to the exhaustion, burnout, and mental duress teachers are experiencing as they struggle to teach changing rosters of students across multiple learning environments (in-person, online and students in quarantine). Up to 25 percent of students are quarantined in some schools, requiring teachers to spend 10 to 12 extra hours a week preparing audio and video lessons to accompany the written instructions they’re making available on CSD’s online common-learning management system, Canvas.
