On Mar. 8 Lake Stevens School District released the plans for 8-12 graders to move to hybrid learning. Lake Stevens School District sent a survey giving families the choice to stay remote or to go hybrid.  Depending on what they chose, students returning to in-person learning part time were split between two cohorts, A and B, and remote learners are identified as cohort C.  Students began hybrid learning on Apr. 19.

The new model has created many changes. One of these changes is the class size with an in-person classes average of approximately ten students. Another change is to be able to use the bathroom during class.  Students must take a cone pass and there is a restricted number of students who can enter the bathroom at the same time. One of the other major changes is traffic flow in the hallways. There are three stairways in the East Hall at the high school, both of the outside stairs go up and the middle stairwell goes down, and there are teachers standing by to correct those who may go the wrong direction.

The in-person students attend between two and three days a week in person. In hybrid learning, the students have a mixture of doing online learning while getting the lecture in-person on other days. Cohort A comes to school Mondays and Tuesdays and Cohort B attends Thursdays and Fridays, and they alternate Wednesdays.

¨I think having two cohorts/groups is a great thing. It made school life safer, but I wish I was going to school with more of my friends,” junior Jillian Ivers, who chose in-person, said.

All of these changes are new for everyone, the students, the parents, and even the teachers. For some students, this was the change that they needed. 

¨I chose to go hybrid because I didn’t get a senior year, and I wanted to have a little fun and normalcy,¨ senior Samantha McFadden said.

Most students asked are happy to be back. The students are glad that the school is taking the extra steps to make sure they are safe. Some of the extra steps are cleaning the desks after every use, walking only on one side of the hallway, and completing a daily health attestation to make sure you are feeling good enough for school, which also includes a temperature test.

The amount of time students spend at school is a lot different than past years. At the high school this year, students are on campus  from 9:30 a.m. to 1:10 p.m., but then if students need help from a teacher or a counselor there is a time for that in the afternoon. Teachers are available to help from 1:40 to 3:30 via Google Meets, depending on the class. Some of the middle schools in Lake Stevens decided to do a “A.M. & P.M” schedule, where half of the students go in the morning and a half go in the afternoon. 

Some students felt better staying home during this crazy time. The students’ reasons vary from; they feel better learning this way, they feel safer or they have a busy schedule. 

¨I like staying remote because it gives me more time to do my job, and money is very important to me right now,¨ senior Jordyn Mack said.

From all of the changes happening with the school year from not knowing when we would come back or transferring into remote learning, the students have had to adapt and go with the flow.