The Litchfield Elementary School District Governing Board voted 4-0 to Tuesday, Sept. 8 to approve Superintendent Jodi Gunning’s recommendation to begin transitioning students to a hybrid learning model on Wednesday, Sept. 16.
You must be a member to read this story.
Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.
Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
The Litchfield Elementary School District Governing Board voted 4-0 to Tuesday, Sept. 8 to approve Superintendent Jodi Gunning’s recommendation to begin transitioning students to a hybrid learning model on Wednesday, Sept. 16.
President Danielle Clymer and board members Kimberly Moran, Dr. Tawnya Pfitzer and Melissa Zuidema voted in favor. Board member Alayne Weathersby was absent.
“We feel that it is very important to get our children back into the classroom as soon as possible,” Ms. Gunning told the board. “I do feel comfortable and confident in recommending the hybrid model.”
Students in kindergarten through second grade will transition Sept. 16, followed by third through fifth grades on Monday, Sept. 21 and sixth through eighth grades Monday, Sept. 28. If public health benchmarks move from the current moderate community transmission to minimal transmission before those dates, students could bypass hybrid and move straight to full in-person learning.
Families of students who opted for digital learning will remain in the distance learning model all year.
Under the hybrid model, each teacher will be assigned 32 students divided into two groups. Group A will be in class with their teacher Mondays and Wednesdays while Group B works online. Group B will be in class Tuesdays and Thursdays while Group A works online. All 32 students will work online with their teachers on Fridays.
Ms. Gunning said her office will continue monitoring benchmark data and will work with Maricopa County Public Health officials for guidance how to proceed if students, faculty or staff at one of the district’s 11 elementary and five middle schools in Avondale, Buckeye, Goodyear or Litchfield Park test positive for COVID-19, which could include quarantining a classroom or an entire school.
“It is definitely a year of flexibility,” she said.
The Governing Board also voted 4-0 to spend up to $700,000 for nightly electrostatic disinfecting at all LESD locations, up to $235,000 to hire temporary janitors to augment existing janitorial staff and spend up to $150,000 for network equipment to boost the district’s internet capabilities.
Kelly O’Sullivan can be reached at kosullivan@newszap.com or 760-963-1697. For up-to-date local reporting on all things COVID-19, Independent Newsmedia has created a webpage dedicated to coverage of the novel coronavirus: #AZNEWSMEDIA
Kelly O’Sullivan News Editor | Litchfield Park& Goodyear @AzNewsmedia
Kelly O’Sullivan is a longtime journalist who joined Independent Newsmedia in January 2020, after returning to the Valley from Twentynine Palms, California, where she worked for eight years as a communications specialist for the U.S. Marine Corps. When she’s not covering stories of interest to Litchfield Park, Goodyear and other Southwest Valley residents, she stays busy rediscovering Arizona and photographing its spectacular landscapes and wildlife.
By 
