Fall River Schools to remain in modfied hybrid mode after holiday break

The high amount of COVID-19 uncertainty during the break has led the Fall River Public School system to remain in a modified hybrid model.

At the end of November, it was announced that due to a continuous increase in community spread of COVID-19 in Fall River the school system transitioned to a modified hybrid posture.

Starting 12/7 Cohort A “high needs” + Durfee Career & Technical Education shop students continued in-person learning & Cohorts B/C/D went to full remote.

Courtesy of Fall River Public Schoools

At the time, it was a difficult decision for Malone to make.

“Although surely frustrating for many, the transition week will provide parents of cohort C/D students time to make child-care plans for the remote learning day which will continue to be a full-day of learning M-F. This decision was made based on the past 6 weeks of community spread data & our daily accounting of positive employee/student cases + the contact tracing resulting in increased #’s in need of quarantine.”

Fall River Public Schools were to return to a normal hybrid model on January 4th, however, in tonight’s School Committee meeting, Malone stated that the modified hybrid model would remain for at least a little longer.

Malone stated that he is concerned that data will not be shared during the break and with the previous Thanksgiving spike in cases, the same could occur with Christmas.

As of now, on Tuesday January 19th, students in grades pre-K to 8th grade will return to the full hybrid model and Durfee and RPA students will continue in the modified hybrid model until February 1st.

According to Malone, all students are currently scheduled to return to the full hybrid model on February 1st.

“Hopefully the rates come down and we are in a much better place.”

Malone stated that staff absences have also been difficult to manage due to sickness and quarantine and the system will continue to look at the data when making decisions.