Tolleson Elementary School District

The Tolleson Elementary School District is considering hybrid classroom instruction for the upcoming school year with a growing number of parents saying they do not feel comfortable yet sending their kids back to classrooms.

With Arizona on track to mark 1,000 or more coronavirus-related deaths this week, schools must figure out if it’s possible to bring back students and staff safely.

The state released guidelines on how districts could accomplish that, but it's ultimately up to each of them to decide for themselves what's best for the students and parents they serve. 

In the Florence Unified School District, which serves the Florence and San Tan Valley southeast of Phoenix, Superintendent Chris Knutsen is feeling confident that his schools could reopen safely and that their parents and students are interested in doing so based on the well-attended, in-person graduation the district held last month. Knutsen said the event went smoothly with everyone following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and he hasn't heard of any new coronavirus cases stemming from it. The district's new school year starts in July.  

→ Arizona Gov. Ducey: Schools Will Reopen In Fall, Youth Sports Can Resume

"I really hope that it’s not a situation where our kids are at home again because the isolation was probably doing more harm than COVID-19," he said. 

The district’s track and field athletes are already feeling some sense of normalcy. They are participating in a track meet next week.  

"We will do it with safe social distancing," Knutsen said. "There won’t be any spectators. We will require them to wear masks except when they’re competing.” 

Although he's hoping to resume in-person instruction next month, he said the district will be flexible as it waits from more direction from state lawmakers who he hopes will pass a bill that will protect businesses and schools from coronavirus lawsuits. 

Meanwhile the Tolleson Elementary School District is working on ideas for instilling the importance of hygiene to students such as placing colorful, bilingual posters on the walls, said the district's superintendent Lupita Hightower. 

“For our preschool and kindergarten classrooms, our teachers have already been doing pre-COVID-19, songs that they use to sing as they wash their hands," she said. 

But a growing number of Tolleson parents have expressed in a recent survey that they're currently not comfortable sending their kids back. That may lead the district taking a hybrid approach in August, but virtual attendance could cause the district to lose some state dollars, and that worries Hightower. She hopes state lawmakers will convene in a special session to tackle this issue.  

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