AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – There have been different approaches taken by school districts for the 2020-19 school year. Some are teaching remotely, some in-person and some doing both.
The Avondale School District was planning to have in-person learning until recently moving to virtual instruction.
Staff said they were looking forward to having children at their desks before COVID-19 cases started to spike in the area.
That led Avondale Public Schools superintendent James Schwarz to make the call to go strictly virtual, instead of a hybrid model, after getting a fifty fifty response from the community and staff.
“Going to a hybrid model is no more convenient for a parent where you’re in school part of the week, you’re at home part of the week," Schwarz said.
In October, Schwarz and a school committee will re-evaluate the situation to see if a return to school can happen.
While the decision on what to do with students hasn’t been an easy one, Schwarz wonders why Governor Gretchen Whitmer won’t make that decision like she has for other industries.
“There’s a frustration there," Schwarz said. "The apparent conflicting executive orders when it comes to schools versus businesses, restaurants. There’s conflicts between what you can have in a classroom versus what you can have on a field.”
Schwarz said school districts are feeling left out to make their own decisions in a complicated situation.
- View more: Michigan COVID-19 data