DUBLIN, Ga. — Another central Georgia school system is preparing for students to return to class in person for the first time this year.
The Dublin City School Board made the decision this week.
Carol Sailem looks after her 5 and 7-year-old grandchildren, which she says was a challenge in the virtual setting
"When you're dealing with little kids, they need that learning environmental structure. That's what they needed, and it was really hard for them to focus at home," she said.
Superintendent Fred Williams and the Board decided Monday night to approve phasing students back to in-person instruction.
"What the board decided was to bring students back like were going to do at the beginning, all students are not coming back on campus," Williams said.
The district offered three learning options for parents to chose from over the summer, but ended up keeping them all at home.
On Nov. 9, they're moving forward with the other plans.
"We had three options. One was the on campus option, which we have a certain amount of students on each campus, it's not full capacity by any means. Then we have a hybrid where kids can come in and cherry pick the classes that they wanted, maybe I'm not good at math and I chose to come in for math, and then we have those who would be online," Williams said.
He stresses the importance of following safety guidelines outside of the school setting, especially as we head into holiday season.
"We know that the masks reduces and slows the spread and so we need people masking, we need people avoiding large gatherings, and during the Thanksgiving time and even Halloween and other things that are coming up, we need the personal responsibility in order to be able to be as event free in the academic setting," Williams said.
"It's going to be a pleasant transition for us working parents, as well as the kids looking forward to going back into the school setting as well," Sailem said.
Only the parents who initially chose to send their students back in-person can change their option if they prefer to stay virtual.
Those who chose virtual over the summer will stay virtual through the end of the semester.
All parents will have the ability to make changes to their child's learning options for the second half of the school year on Jan. 15.