Cache County School District cut hours

The Cache County School District is temporarily altering its schools’ schedules in order to help resolve issues that have been created by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

This adjustment was implemented to help absent students and teachers without having to forgo in-person education for online school. The changes went into effect on Jan. 31.

According to a letter sent to CCSD parents from the district on Jan. 25, elementary schools have been experiencing absentee rates of 9-17% while middle and high schools have had even higher rates falling between 19-31%.

The adjusted schedule will be as follows:

The allocated time in which students would normally be in school is meant for teachers to prepare and help students who are absent.

Monica Sanchez, the English language learner parent liaison, thought the change would be helpful to teachers.

“Maybe we should have done this sooner, not just because of the absentee raise but because our teachers are really struggling,” Sanchez said. “With students being absent, teachers are having to not only teach their regular class, but they’re doing online work for those who are at home sick.”

Randi Phillips, a seventh-grade science teacher at Spring Creek Middle School, agreed with Sanchez that the schedule is beneficial as a teacher.

“It helps me by allowing me to spend more time making my lessons available and accessible to students who are at home,” Phillips said. “With this extra time, I’ll be able to elaborate my slides to help those that aren’t in class understand the material.”

For some, the benefits of the schedule change extend further beyond the intended effects from CCSD.

Sarah Young — a parent of an elementary school student, middle school student and high school student who all attend schools in the district — appreciated the consistency that the revised schedule provides given that school now ends at the same time each day.

Young also mentioned that it fills a hole that had previously been lacking.

“There hasn’t been a lot of support online for kids who are out because of sickness or quarantine and it would give the kids and the teachers more of an ability to help get caught up on school work they’ve missed without having to manage a whole class,” she said.

While this schedule adjustment can be helpful to some parents and teachers, however, it does not come without drawbacks.

Andrea Gerber, a former teacher in the Alpine School District and a current resident of Nibley, had concerns from when a similar schedule change was attempted in her district only to be postponed.

According to Gerber, there were thousands of emails and phone calls received from complaining teachers and parents shortly after her district’s adjustment was announced.

“It’s a nightmare for working parents,” Gerber said. “Stay at home parents don’t notice much of a difference.”

In order to help schools throughout Utah stay open and functioning in the midst of the pandemic, Gov. Spencer J. Cox also signed an executive order allowing state government employees time off to work in public schools.

Employees of the state will have the option to work in schools for up to 30 hours and will receive both their normal salary and compensation from the school.

“We know that kids learn best in the classroom, so we want to do what we can to help schools stay open,” Cox said in a press release. “Our teachers and our children deserve our support during this difficult phase of the pandemic. We hope many of the state’s 22,000 employees will take advantage of this opportunity to help our schools.”

-Brock.Marchant@usu.edu