LA CENTER, Wash. — In the small Southwest Washington town of La Center, most students are engaged in hybrid learning. That means the kids are in the classroom for a couple of days a week. It is weighing heavy on Libby Cameron's 16-year-old high schooler.
"This has been really hard to not be in school full time for him," Cameron said.
For Cameron's son, at least, things are about to get a lot better.
At a school board meeting Tuesday, La Center's superintendent recommended a return to in-person learning five days a week starting April 26. The school board approved the recommendation. Cameron is thrilled for her son.
"I'm happy for him to be able to do something he really wants to do," she said. "He wants to be with teachers and friends, and I think that's a good thing."
"It surprised me," added parent Adam Mosbrucker. "It seems premature and maybe inappropriate."
Mosbrucker has an elementary and middle schooler. He has reservations about a return to school full time.
"We're a couple months from the end of the school year and to cause another transition, to create another disruption, it seems unnecessary," he said.
Mosbrucker wishes the district would adopt the plan Portland Public Schools is zeroing in on - waiting until fall.
On Tuesday evening, PPS Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero said this about next school year: "It's our expectation that we will fully reopen for five days a week of in-person instruction this coming fall."
Back in La Center, barring a rise in COVID cases that could derail the plan, students will be back in the classroom five days a week before the end of the month.
"I'm interested myself and for my kids to be able to get back to some form of normal," Cameron said.
This announcement out of La Center only impacts students in grades 2-12. Kindergartners and first graders are already back in the classroom full time.