After some time of planning, the Los Rios School District has announced that the upcoming fall 2021 semester will be a hybrid schedule, which will allow some classes to be on-ground.
The classes that will be able to be on campus for the fall semester include classes that are impossible to convert into remote operations, with the possibility of science labs also being on-ground.
“It’s a signal that we’re pivoting from our primary online delivery. What we did in the fall 2020 semester was we had an EMT, fire technology and medical assisting. At that time it was really focused on classes with that health and safety perspective, but now we’ll continue to offer these classes while adding a variety of classes. In the fall we’ll be doing things like adaptive PE, automotive and we’ll also be doing construction,” said Vice President of Administration Theresa Tena.
Although this is what’s being said right now, things could change as public guidelines evolve over the coming months, Tena said.
“The more students, faculty and classified administrators who get the vaccination would mean that the higher the likelihood we no longer have those prescriptive six feet of social distancing guidance,” Tena said.
For some classes like science labs, it is crucial that this guidance isn’t in place if they want to return to campus in the fall.
“The only way that we will be allowed to take labs back on-ground is if there’s no social distancing required,” said biology professor Julie Oliver.
Due to how science labs are set up in terms of layout, there’s no way that they can space people out enough for it to be safe, said Oliver.
“Every professor’s dream, especially science professors, is to be back in their labs with their microscopes, their specimens and their molecules. It’s just what everybody wants, but we want to do it safely,” Oliver said.
Students who are not comfortable with coming back to campus won’t be faced with the decision of showing up to campus for in-person classes, unless if they are enrolled in hard-to-convert classes.
“I mean, unless the student is enrolled in say, construction or in EMT then they’re going to really be front and center faced with that, but the majority of our course offerings are going to be online so it won’t be such a stark decision,” Tena said.
Students that are actually returning to campus right now, are student-athletes, so the hope is that athletics will start up when the fall semester starts, said Tena.
As far as some of the general feedback from this decision, Tena understands that everyone will have a different perspective on whether they want to return to campus or not.
“I think it just depends on every individual and their comfort level with what’s going on. People are going to have a different comfort level with going to the movie theater or going to the gym and that’s going to influence what their comfort level would be for coming back to in-person instruction,” Tena said.
Everything that is being done to get classes back to in-person instruction is within students and staff’s best interest, but while still keeping everyone safe, Tena said.
“We’re trying to keep everyone’s health and safety at the forefront and give everybody a little bit of grace. Everybody’s trying to do the best they can and we know that and we all want to be back too, but everybody wants to do it safely,” Tena said.
For more information on the Los Rios Reopening Plan, visit https://crc.losrios.edu/reopening and to view the fall schedule, visit https://crc.losrios.edu/academics/search-class-schedules.