<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/12/1608046445963.png" alt="The Shawnee Heights school board voted Monday night to return in January to a hybrid of in-person and online instruction due to the volume of students struggling academically. The COVID-19 pandemic convinced the board to go online in November. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>The Shawnee Heights school board voted Monday night to return in January to a hybrid of in-person and online instruction due to the volume of students struggling academically. The COVID-19 pandemic convinced the board to go online in November. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Nearly one-fourth of district’s high school students flunking two courses</h2>By TIM CARPENTER <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2020/12/15/shawnee-heights-online-learning-experience-inspires-pivot-to-old-school-classroom-model/">Kansas Reflector</a>TECUMSEH — The 
pandemic-challenged semester at Shawnee Heights High School began in 
September with a couple days a week of in-class instruction before 
COVID-19 forced the school board to switch to full remote learning in 
November.The result: Nearly one-fourth of the high school’s 1,100 students are now failing at least two courses.Principal Ed West said 25% of the school’s ninth, 10th and 11th
 grade students were on the “academic warning list.” This unfortunate 
roster is for anyone earning an F in at least two classes. Seniors 
proved themselves a statistical savior, deflating the overall rate for 
futility because only 13% were bombing a pair of courses.In a normal semester when 
traditional instructional models weren’t being chased by a relentless 
virus, West said, perhaps fewer than 100 of the high school’s students 
would be so listed.“Currently, this semester, we have 263,” West said.Shawnee Heights Middle School Principal Tim Urich said performance of 23% of the 7th and 8th
 graders fell into a “not effective” category, meaning they had a D or F
 in at least half their classes. An estimated 13% of the district’s 
elementary school students haven’t been regularly participating in their
 online classes or had failed to turn in school work.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/12/1608046508737.jpeg" alt="Ed West, principal of Shawnee Heights High School, said Monday nearly one-fourth of 1,100 students at the high school were failing at least two courses. The district’s school board turned to an online-only model in November amid spread of COVID-19, but voted to go back to a hybrid approach in January. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Ed West, principal of Shawnee Heights High School, said Monday nearly one-fourth of 1,100 students at the high school were failing at least two courses. The district’s school board turned to an online-only model in November amid spread of COVID-19, but voted to go back to a hybrid approach in January. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>“The way to catch them up is to have them in school,” Urich said.It’s a scholarly message 
that resonated with the Shawnee Heights Board of Education, which voted 
Monday night to return to a hybrid of in-person and online instruction 
when classes resumed in January. The influence of holiday gatherings on 
spread of COVID-19 will determine what approach the school board takes 
for February and beyond in USD 450.“The information the 
building administrators have shared is hard to ignore,” said school 
board member Eric Deitcher, who has a son in middle school.He said advance of 
COVID-19 justifiably convinced the school board to withdraw to remote 
learning three weeks ago. Returning the district to a hybrid operation 
Jan. 4 is worth the effort, he said.The decision was applauded
 by the mask-adorned, socially distanced meeting audience dominated by 
people who endorsed return of students to familiar brick-and-mortar 
school buildings. The school board and the district’s constituents had 
to take into account rapid expansion of infection in Kansas, but also 
adoption of mitigation steps designed to shield adults and the 
resiliance of younger people to the virus. It’s a balancing act played 
out in nearly 300 districts across Kansas.<h2>‘Heartbreaking’</h2>Shawnee Heights isn’t 
alone in experiencing mixed academic results while attempting to 
minimize spread of coronavirus among students, teachers and staff as 
well as parents and the larger community. The strategy of avoiding mass 
gatherings in schools frustrated parents and students while inspiring 
activists intrigued by the prospect of voting out school board members 
who refused to bend to their will.There is consensus among 
Kansas educators that in-person instruction with a quality teacher 
worked best for the most students. While some students excel in any 
framework, a segment of students required connections that technology 
cannot deliver.Jeremy Rathbun, who has 
three children in elementary school in Shawnee Heights, said reliance on
 at-home learning, which turned some parents into ad hoc instructional 
aides, had been a struggle. He said teachers and support staff in the 
district worked diligently to help parents carry this unfamiliar load. 
He offered the school board a peek into his life.“It is very heartbreaking 
to see my child failing at school. I am at the point where my kids’ 
mental health and academics need to come first,” Rathbun told the 
seven-member board.Shawnee Heights parent 
Grant Peters said his son frequently struggled in school until a light 
bulb went off in the seventh grade. He became a straight-A student while
 taking advance-placement classes.“Or was,” he corrected 
himself, “until the last month or so. My son now has a C-, two Ds and an
 F. Hopefully, we can get the kids back in school.”<h2>Students in stress</h2>Jacalyn Koch, a student at
 Shawnee Heights High School who took part in protests on behalf of 
in-person instruction, said politics of COVID-19 stood in the way of 
what was best for her peers. She said lack of structure and the 
perpetuation of isolation was a cause of stress that diminished 
students’ motivation to learn.“I know many people, 
including myself, who have become very depressed and suicidal,” she 
said. “They didn’t feel like that until this school year. Several are 
also going through hard things at home and school is a place to get away
 and get a break from those problems.”Superintendent Matt Hirsch
 said a survey of the Shawnee Heights elementary teachers demonstrated 
in-person instruction was considered the best academic option by 81% of 
respondents. Twelve percent said hybrid teaching was at the head of the 
class, while 6% pointed to remote learning as the path forward.“Overwhelmingly, they felt
 like when … kids are here, they learn best,” Hirsch said. “Don’t think 
that’s a shock to anybody. Same thing with social-emotional learning. 
They felt like in-school was the best situation.”However, teachers had a 
fractured response when asked in the survey to reveal their preferred 
work environment as COVID-19 persisted. Here’s how their choices fell 
out: in-person, 31%; remote, 30%; hybrid, 19%; and unknown, 18%.Hirsch recommended the 
district transition to hybrid teaching Jan. 4 or Jan. 19. At the same 
time, he said, building administrators would figure out ways to pull 
more struggling students from pre-K through 12th grade into 
school for three or four days of in-person instruction. The school board
 agreed and chose to implement the change Jan. 4.School board member Rosa 
Cavazos, who moved to the Shawnee Heights district in 2005, said burden 
of the pandemic, educational needs of students, pressure from parents 
and necessity for compromise was exhausting. It’s the kind of drama that
 produces sleepless nights, she said.“I’m struggling. I tell you this is hard,” she said. “At some point, were going to have to let them fly.”Fellow board member Lauren
 Tice Miller, who graduated from the district and has three kids, said 
the real enemy in this situation was COVID-19 rather than people who had
 different ideas about how to proceed in the pandemic. She also 
announced at close of the school board meeting that she wouldn’t seek 
another term as the board’s president.Rocky Busenitz, a school 
board member who graduated from high school in the district during 1994,
 said the best option given philosophical realities was a hybrid 
instructional approach, and the sooner the better. He told colleagues 
nine months in the COVID-19 pressure cooker wouldn’t be easily 
forgotten.“The negativity at times can wear you down,” he said. “I’m praying for each and every one of you.”Tim Carpenter has reported on Kansas for 35 years. He covered the Capitol for 16 years at the Topeka Capital-Journal and previously worked for the Lawrence Journal-World and United Press International.

Kan. school district pivots to classroom model after flurry of Fs