DUBLIN, Ga. — Dublin City Schools will offer in-person instruction, remote learning or a mix of both this school year.
Now, they're on to the next step, deciding whether to shorten the school year.
"I'm an old football coach, and we might have a plan going into the game and if that's not working, guess what we have to do? You have to be nimble and agile to adjust to plans," Superintendent Fred Williams said.
Now that Dublin City Schools decided to offer in-person instruction, remote learning, or a mix of both, they're moving onto their next plan to possibly shorten the calendar year.
"The first days for students would be the 27 of Aug. through Sept. 4 where we will be assessing those students to see where they are, and school will officially begin the day after labor day," Williams said.
The traditional 180 school calendar day would be shortened to about 167 days for students. Teachers would still report to school on the original Aug. 3 start date to have time to prepare.
"With this proposed calendar from Aug. 3-7, we would have pre-planned where our teachers would arrange their physical environments for those instructing on campus. And then Aug. 10-26 would be intense professional learning on teaching in this digital area," Williams said.
The training will make sure all staff members can confidently transition to digital learning if school closings ever happen again.
"Just like we do fire drills and severe weather drills, we're going to practice digital learning drills like, 'Guess what guys, school's closed. Alright who needs the laptop? Who has the hotspot?' and those type of things that we need," Williams said.
Williams said they'll finalize decisions on the calendar at the next board meeting on July 13.
Parents have until Friday, July 10 to submit their choice of learning environment.