Huron City Schools to return to five-day in-person on January 19

At the Tuesday, January 5, 2020 Huron Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Dennis Muratori announced that Huron City Schools will return to five-day in-person on January 19, which is the beginning of the second semester.

Muratori shared his reasoning for going to five-day in-person. First he referenced several studies that say COVID-19 spread is low in schools. Second studies also say that virtual learning is causing mental illness in students, which he says is more important than academics. Finally he says that other local districts are going or plan to go back five-days in-person.

Muratori said that along with five-day in-person, the district will offer an option to allow students to stay at home five-days and watch their classes on Zoom. The district will also continue to offer the Huron Virtual Academy. He said that some parents will be polled later this week about which option they’d choose. A virtual forum will be held on Monday, January 11 at 6PM. Parents will be sent out information about how to join the forum.

This is the third time Huron City Schools has attempted to return to five-days in-person. In October, Muratori announced that he would recommend the board voted to have the district to return five-days in-person, but the recommendation was later pulled a few hours before that meeting. In November, the board voted at a special meeting to return to five-days in-person, but after a large amount of push back from the public, they voted to stay hybrid at the next meeting.

One of the parents that spoke in audience comments asked the district to stay hybrid and to offer extra assistance to students that are struggling with hybrid learning. The parent also mentioned that COVID-19 cases continue to remain high, as was the case when the board voted in November to stay hybrid.

According to Muratori, from November 3 to January 5, 27 Huron City Schools students and 18 Huron City Schools staff members have tested positive for COVID-19. Since the beginning of the school year, 26 Huron High School students, five McCormick Junior High students, seven Woodlands Intermediate students, five Shawnee Elementary students have tested positive for COVID-19. 13 teachers, three support staff, two NorthPoint employees, two coaches, and one administrator have also test positive for COVID-19.

Also at tonight’s organizational meeting, Paul Ward was voted and sworn in as President of the School Board and Jody Mast was voted and sworn in as Vice President.

You can watch the entire meeting here. The regular meeting starts at about one hour and eleven minutes in the video.