Richland school board approves return schedule for secondary students.

RICHLAND, Wash.-- Secondary students in the Richland School District will resume in-person learning later this month.

At its meeting Tuesday night, Richland's School Board of Directors approved a phased-in plan for returning students to the classroom after nearly a year of distance learning due to COVID-19 concerns.

Click here to see the full plan.

The district started the process of phasing Elementary students to in-person learning in late October, with Fourth and Fifth grades starting a hybrid learning model this week.

The plan approved by the board has Middle Schools, River's Edge High School, and Three Rivers Homelink returning the week of January 25th, with Richland and Hanford High returning the week of February 15th.

Students who don't want to return to school can continue with virtual learning.

"I like this plan," said School Board President Rick Jansons. "I don't want to start and then pull kids back because of non-COVID types of things, like not enough subs or contact tracers." Jansons also like the idea of the phased-in process of bringing students back into the classroom to ensure that the health department has the capacity to conduct contact tracing when cases of the virus are identified.

At least two of the board members wanted to bring high school students back sooner than the proposed February 17th, but to consider bringing them back January 27th along with middle school students.

Todd Baddley, Assistant Superintendent for the district, said there are training and technology elements that the district is still putting in place, which is part of the reason for the delay in returning students in the high school grades.

Some of RSD staff started receiving the vaccine on Tuesday, and district officials are in contact with the state health department to identify more doses.

The School Board approved a plan to bring students back into the classroom on the following schedule:

Middle Schools:
• January 22nd and 26th – Middle school teachers return to their classrooms for 2 days of preparation. Middle School students will be in asynchronous learning.
• January 27th – 6th Grade Group A – on-site, all other students learning remotely.
• January 28th – 6th Grade Group B – on-site, all other students learning remotely.
• February 1 – The full hybrid schedule begins for all middle school students following the A/B schedule

Hanford and Richland High Schools:
• February 11th and 16th – Teachers return to their classrooms for 2 days of preparation. High School students will be in asynchronous learning.
• February 17th – 9th Grade Group A – on-site, all other students learning remotely.
• February 18th – 9th Grade Group B – on-site, all other students learning remotely.
• February 22nd – The full hybrid schedule begins for all high school students following the A/B schedule.

River’s Edge High School:
• January 26th and 27th – All River’s Edge teachers return to their classrooms for 2 days of preparation. Students will be in asynchronous learning.
• January 28th – REHS will return to their normal schedule Monday – Friday with all students enrolled in on-site courses on campus. The class sizes can be accommodated without a hybrid schedule.

Three Rivers HomeLink:
• Prior to January 26th, staff will have their training and planning time to support the transition to onsite learning.
• January 26th – 6th-12th grade onsite classes resume in-person. HomeLink will resume regular offerings with the only exception being that onsite learning has been modified to meet health and safety guidelines.
• February 1st – K-5th grade second semester enrichment courses will begin for in-person learning. Core learning for elementary will remain remote (no change).