Phase 3 Survey Employee Comments

I think that it’s time for our children to receive the education that they deserve. They are getting to behind.

“With regards to high school students: Students are not mentally or semantically prepared to go back full time. They have been on an early out schedule all year. There is only a term left of this school year, and it will take time for students to retrain their brains to learn in 90-minute intervals. By the time 90-minute classes are edifying, there won’t be enough time left in the school year to make that instruction time worthwhile. Families & students have rearranged their work schedules, family responsibilities, and study habits enough this year. When Fridays changed to in-school learning, I saw a decrease in assignments being completed for freshmen, sophomores, & seniors. They amount is slowly getting back to what they were, but not yet. Other districts are aware that their current schedule is not preferable, but they are choosing to remain on it to provide consistency. While this may not be an ideal schedule, it is the schedule we chose at the beginning of the year. We were to move through the Phases as life would allow, but life isn’t ready for Phase 3. There isn’t a high enough vaccinated rate among the elder, at risk, immuno-compromised people that our students reside with or help take care of. Teachers still have students get Covid, quarantine, or have a relation ill. If in Phase 3, that is even more instruction that they would be missing. Teachers would need to support them more, but that time for support and preparation would be gone because we’d be in Phase 3.”

Another phase change would be really overwhelming for the students, and teachers. In addition to another change in schedule, teachers will now have all of the prep time taken away from them, while still being expected to meet the needs of students who are online due to illness, family situation, or quarantine. Students will be masked for an additional 2 hours daily, which is likely to leave 4th and 5th period teachers, especially, dealing with overtired children and wasting much of the instruction time â€œgainedâ€ to discipline problems and mask enforcement.

This school year has already been hard enough. The pandemic hasnâ€™t only effected children, but us employees as well. Please let us just finish this school year with the way things are going. Weâ€™re trying to make it to the end and changing the schedule again isnâ€™t going to help.

There are a lot of positives to going back to full days BUT our teachers and staff have had a lot of change this year and inconsistency, please take the state of our teachers mental health into consideration and donâ€™t make another change. Start off next school year with full day regular school, but letâ€™s not make this change, the straw that breaks the camels back. Our teachers have been in survival mode a long time this year and are maybe just now getting into a groove. Please donâ€™t make this change.

It should remain as it is right now! Why? Students, families and teachers have been through so many changes during this school year. At this point, families are used already with the schedule we have. They have arrangements for their children and it is not necessary to change that. Plus, the end of the school year is a stressful time with tests and activities where a change of routines will not be a positive move for no one. By nature, the change of weather brings to the students too much excitement and they get anxious to play and be outside at their homes, especially now after so many COVID restrictions. Having extra hours at school will bring challenge and an unsafe time.

It’s too much!! Phase 4 will be too much for teachers who are having to teach online and in person. It’s too much for parents to rearrange their schedules. And it’s too long for kids to be wearing their masks. They’re already sick of their masks, we can’t expect them to wear them for that many hours! Don’t go to phase 3.

“It’s to soon we are not sure yet if it will be ok for sure or not. Jumping from one phase to the next and then back again is hard on everyone !”

It is very difficult for myself and my students to wear masks five hours a day. I find myself hyperventilating as I instruct students and it’s a welcome relief when they leave at 1 p.m. and I can remove my mask. If the mask mandate can be lifted, then I have no problem with extending the school day.

An abbreviated schedule and earlier release time allows teachers more time to attend to all of the students who are accessing the lessons online only. The time I spend answering questions in a timely way for students who are at home, quarantined or isolated, is about an hour a day. In addition, creating content for online learners requires lots more time than in class instruction, because everything must be explained in words and demonstrated in videos and material that would normally be pulled from a shelf and passed out needs to be digitized; I even have colleagues who have to read and record multiple pages of text books aloud each day after school because there are no digital alternatives. Producing this online content takes at least 2 hours each day for me, in addition to normal lesson planning. If students stay for the full time, I will not have any more time to produce and deliver online content.

Not much to gain by change. Change is hard and it’s been hard enough on the kids this year.

having a full week of school could lead to mask exhaustion, especially in younger students. i donâ€™t think we should rush into full day school just yet but ending the year in full day would be nice.

I’m excited to be back to normal next August but for now I think the schedule they have now is great. They have had enough change this year already. There is a few kids in 2nd grade it would be really rough for another change.

“After talking with fellow teachers and all of my students, we feel moving to Phase Three will have more negative effects than positive in the high schools. We all need consistency right now; it’s been exhausting, mentally and physically, moving back and forth in phases. The number of hours it takes to change lesson plans is overwhelming, and for adding only 20 extra minutes per class for nine weeks, not enough bang for our tired brains. However, the middle school teachers would probably be grateful for longer classes–they already eat lunch at school so the safety issues aren’t as prevalent as the high schools, and longer classes can help the 8th graders get ready for the transition to high school in the fall.

The students at Provo High have finally settled into Phase 2.5 and I expect third term grades to be better than the previous two where we had so much change. I have students in my room at least three days a week after school to receive help on current work and for making up past term grades. In Phase 2.5, they have plenty of time to do that, and I have time to freely help them and get my planning and correcting done.

Please, leave us in a consistent schedule that we are already familiar with and doing well in.”

“No schools should go to phase 3: 1. COVID transmission is far from over. We still need to social distance and wear masks. Weâ€™ve done so well keeping numbers low in the schools thanks to the measures we have in place. We should not put our guard down by moving to phase 3. 2. We have students who are doing online learning and we need to tend to their needs. By going full day all days I will not have the time for my students who are still staying home because of circumstances particular to their families. 3. We have worked many extra hours to provide face to face education and online education. I teach 4 different classes and Iâ€™m still building parts of my classes on CANVAS, recording videos, optimizing assignments so they work in a blended learning environment. My load is heavy. Going to phase 3 I means I would need to put extra hours at home to have everything ready for the students. 4. What about teachersâ€™ social and mental health? We’ve been told over and over that the district cares about it. Please let us finish the year the way we are. We have had many changes and have worked hard to overcome the challenges each phase has presented. We are tired and emotionally exhausted. In my family we have suffered direct consequences from COVID (3 of my children had the virus at different times, one of them quite severe; I lost a relative to COVID). I have managed all these situations without missing a day of school! Please be sensitive to our emotional needs.”

“Not sure if there are any ‘practical transitional stages’ left — it has been hard on many of the kids getting back to more and more hours and day of school with engagement–redeveloping better routines ( for them at school, home as well for them and some of their parents)

Also, a minor concern for some para situations throughout the district,: a number of paras have their own classes from all grades, all day, particularly in the elementary school level, and gratefully have the safety responsibility of wiping after every class which is wonderful to still utilize this–a minimal issue with that is less prep and less bathroom opportunities. Very glad in moving forward with learning & safety increases for the students and their growth in learning — excited with this very important transition and wanted to touching base the thought of welcoming minor adjustments on the ‘issue end that would be ‘relieving’ as well :)”

I would prefer to keep the schedules that we have right now until the end of the school year. We have had to make so many changes this year already with our daily schedules, the way we teach, the way we group students, RTI, cleaning, separating students at lunch and recess, etc. It seems like just when the students, teachers, and families get into a routine, we change to a different phase. In some ways, I’ve felt like the teachers have been the puppets this year, and once a decision is made, then boom, we have to change everything all over again. It has been a stressful and challenging year. I think we have made the changes and accommodations well each time we have had to, I’m just not sure the benefits of moving to Phase 3 at this late stage of the school year will produce the benefits that people are hoping for. Many teachers have been using that time after school, to tutor and help students who are very behind.Despite voicing our concerns, I feel like the move to Phase 3 is inevitable. I just hope those making the final decision, realize how difficult it will be to arrange a school schedule that still involves keeping students distanced in the halls, at recess, and when eating lunch. Our days are scheduled to accommodate those issues right now, but adding almost 2 hours to each day will definitely add more conflicts. Since things seem to be going well right now, I don’t really want to make big changes and want to finish the year as strong as we can with our current focus.

I feel children and families are in real need of a return to full-time school, and that the time is right.

The constant change is not good emotionally or mentally. I feel students have a good routine and we should finish out the year. Also wearing a masks is going good right now however with the longer days I feel we will see more students not wanting to wear the mask. If going back full time to school what will happen to homestudy students? When will teacher have time to communicate with those students, or do online learning for those students? Is homestudy going away? Teachers and students are already emotionally and mentally worn.

After losing Fridays, I already can’t handle the workload anymore. If you add another roughly 2 hours I have to be teaching I’m not sure I’m going to make it, not to mention the reduction of time for students to come in and get help or make up work outside of class. Above all though, the students (and the teachers) need CONSISTENCY! That was supposed to be one of the focuses to help get everyone through this year and things keep changing. I understand that we’re trying to get them back to school more and closer to normal but I think we’ve taken that far enough this year. It feels like as soon as we start to adjust to a new schedule they want to change it again. Once we started coming back Fridays, I saw less homework being turned in. Yes, the extra 30 minutes in each class period would be nice but it’s not worth it. That benefit doesn’t outweigh the harm. Also, figuring out how to deal with lunch would be a whole other nightmare. Just leave things the way they are for the last 3 months we have left of this school year!

I would love more time with my students.

I think the recent reports on the virus spreading when dining out means we should still be cautious with serving lunch in the schools. My hesitation in beginning with phase 3 is just that the students are able to eat lunch 6 feet apart. My guess is that the middle and high school students will not social distance while eating on campus.

The wearing of a mask makes it EXTREMELY difficult to teach or work in a shop setting

Secondary schools could benefit from having more face time with their teachers, especially high school students so they can stay on top of their credits. I think elementary students would struggle with the transition to a full day of school. If teachers need to be out of the building by 4:00, that doesnâ€™t give them very much prep time when school ends at 3:20.

“Consistency and stability is key for a school year such as this. Even with majority of teachers being vaccinated, I feel it would be detrimental to staff and students mental health to add more change and complication to this already chaotic school year. The toll of wearing masks for 7-8 hours a day, 5 days a week will be very trying on both students and teachers, as well as trying to figure out the details of lunch schedules at a school with 2500 students.

That being said, if the school board votes in favor to move to phase 3, it is only fair that certain events should be restored to the student population. If we move to phase 3, prom and graduation should be brought back. If moving to phase 3, these events should be reestablished. Thank you for your time and consideration.”

We are all in the school together for the majority of the school day. It doesnâ€™t seem like a couple more hours a day will change the possibility of catching the virus and it can only benefit the students education by there for normal school hours.

Elementary students need consistency. I’d like to see them have it. Any changes should give plenty of consistency between. Also, unless our leadership has had plenty of time to fully contemplate the best scenarios for adding hours and to plan well with teachers for several weeks, I object to it. Adding hours because of parent demand and not because there is good objective evidence that it will benefit the kids makes no sense. I’d rather see a few days added to the school year to increase time in class if it’s simply a concern for classroom hours. These added days could involve following a well established routine. Finally, mask wearing for more hours for the kids doesn’t seem to be a productive idea, but I do fully support mask wearing. I just feel it’s already hard for elementary kids to do this for as long as they do each day.

Since we are not very clear about the side effects of Covid 19, I feel it’s better to take cautious action to move to Phase 3 to protect our students. As teachers and elder people all got vaccine, students are most likely to get Covid 19. I have a student who have headache, stomachache, sleeping problem after he got Covid 19. He looks fine, but we never know what reactions have happened inside the body, so let’s keep highly concern about our students, they are the future.

“Primary students thrive on routine. Until now I have encouraged every increase of instructional time, but we have faced updates and adjustments every 8 weeks. Establishing routines and practices in school takes time, evaluation, and re-implementation. Changing constantly is exhausting for students who have to relearn routines–not to mention the effort for teachers to re-invent things every 8 weeks.

Secondly, I fully support CDC guidelines for mask wearing, increased ventilation, and social distancing in schools. I truly believe this is why we are succeeding in keeping our schools open. Rushing to return to standard dismissal times will interfere with two of those safe guards. Children and adults will all struggle with the increased time with a mask. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to be in the schools observing the impact mask wearing has. Adding more time will add fatigue, resistance, and risks parents pulling students before the bell. By extending the school day, we will add activities that demand space. Space that is currently being used to distance existing interactions.

If full time school is a high priority for the district, teachers, students and families deserve more than two weeks to prepare. I also strongly urge the board to wait until after Spring Break–Even better, after Year End Testing. The more we shake up before the testing, the less settled primary students will be. Perhaps secondary has different needs.”

Absolutely not! Do NOT go to Phase 3! Almost none of our students have been vaccinated yet. Why give them longer mass group exposure time! Wait till the students have the opportunity to get the vaccine. I vote we wait till next school year (2021-22) before we even consider moving to Phase 3.

Please google â€œCovid variantsâ€. It is not safe, and there is the potential for it to get a lot worse. Please value the lives of your students, faculty, and staff more than parental complaints. Lives are at stake.

There are many complications to transition to full time especially in the high school level. Maintaining social distancing would be impossible especially during lunch time and during passing time. I understand that there are some parents and community members that would like their students in class full time so that they can achieve mastery, but there are many that due to previous scheduling and many unforeseen circumstances in their home, that it will bring added burdens to their families. We have one more term left until the end of the school year, let’s ride this one out as is and work together to get our children caught up in their learning for the next few years. For the students that would be leaving due to graduation we hope that what they have learned prior to this unimaginable turn of events has been enough to get them into college and prepare them to enter into the adult world.

If the board decides to move to phase 3 anyway, after spring break seems like a better transition time for students. Youâ€™ll have less students leaving early for sports tournaments and vacations.

Children already have a hard time wearing a mask for half of the day. A full day of wearing a mask would be extremely hard for students! As a teacher, I would be spending more time regulating mask wearing rather than being able to teach. Going back to full time in March would be terrible! After establishing routines again with children, we would then leave for spring break! Following spring break, routines would need to be established all over again! At this point, the school board, has made a number of changes throughout the school year. Weâ€™ve been asked to adjust and change every single time, and we have! However, weâ€™ve never been given enough time with each change to be able to make real change happen. Itâ€™s as though once we begin to figure things out with each change, everything changes again! We expect students to be making progress, but changes keep coming over and over again! With the number of changes that have been made to the schedule this year, why not finish out the school year with the schedule we currently have. Learning doesnâ€™t take place by cramming everything into quarter 4! Learning takes place over time, and changing the schedule at this point will not provide adequate learning time. By the time the people who actually work with students, and students have adjusted to the schedule the school year will be over! Iâ€™d vote to finish out the year with the schedule we currently have. No changes to quarter 4, where testing begins right away.

“I’m not sure that’s in the best interest of our students. They would have about 2 weeks into the new adjustment when Spring Break will start for a week and then back to readjusting for another week before testing begins. We need them to be at their best for testing! I know young students who are still falling asleep in class (one a bench leaning against the wall, for example, just this week), the last 45 minutes of an early out day which we are now on. Usually they are well adjusted by now to the school schedule, but with Covid and mask-wearing, perhaps that has had an effect on adjusting to school, as well. The younger students are usually chomping at the bit to go home by the last hour of the day on our early out schedule. I worry how they will survive the extra hour and 40 minutes. Phase 3 forces more changes than just extra hours- lunch schedules & specialty classes would have to be later to encourage them to finish the day. Remember kindergartners used to only go to school 3 hours in the past. Now we have them attending all day and this year we have added wearing masks. Is it too much? It could be, as we have tears often from one or two class rooms near days end. They are just stretched. Stretching makes for growth, but even a rubber band, stretched too far, can break. I know there would be more time for learning in Phase 3, but if students are so tired or frustrated, they can’t learn in those circumstances. I feel the bottom line is to do what is best for the students.”

Changing the format of school once again will only bring added pressure to the students. At this point I think we should Finish the School year as is and then start next year fresh with regular hours, activities and no masks.

HS students & teachers CRAVE stability not the disruption of another schedule change, having just settled in the current routine. My HS students express anxiety of losing concurrent enrollment /distance learning/internships/work study/employment or dropping HS classes due to conflicts with Phase 3 schedule. They also report anxiety/fear for safety due to increased exposure risks, lunch time crowding without masks due to eating together, less sanitizing opportunity if move to phase 3. Others express need to continue daily individual intervention time rather than longer large class time. Many feel emotionally or physically unstable & fear trying to adjust to another change or handle more school work/assignments with less time to complete homework. Some provide afternoon family child care.Teachers are still trying to mentor students learning often/very often from home while tutoring students trying to make up work and manage daily in person instruction. Custodial staff at PHS begin work immediately after classes end, work frantically into the night & struggle as it is to clean & sanitize all spaces–less time in phase 3. Health officials don’t know if those vaccinated can still be asymptomatic spreaders-I have been vacinated but my family hasn’t–I am afrraid of taking the virus home. Most HS students aren’t vaccinated yet–could they spread virus to their family members not yet vaccinated? Vaccine could reach effectiveness in everyone within 2 months locally-.keep HS 2.5

Changing the schedule again will disrupt things for the students. It ha been a hard year for everyone. For the emotional well being of children, parents and teachers, I vote to stay in Phase 2.

“I feel we need to finish the year where we are now with Phase 2. Year end testing is beginning and a new schedule often takes time to adjust to and students are in need of stability and consistency right now. It also means more time with a mask on which is difficult already. I just think it would be best to stay the way we are now.”

“I would be supportive, and make it happen as a teacher. I look forward to being able to see our students more often. I especially look forward to hopefully a more “”normal”” school year this upcoming fall.

I will admit, though, that we have been through so much change this past year, every two months we have adjusted the schedule, and a very big part of me would just like to finish out the year without the exhaustion of another big change. We are in a good groove right now, and we are healing from everything we have experienced this past year. Please let us continue as we currently are for our emotional health, and the emotional health of the students. None of the other surrounding school districts have experienced this much change this year. It’s wearing on everyone.”

The students and families have scheduled their lives around the current school schedule (jobs, activities, study time, etc.). Abruptly changing the school schedule to 1-2 hours later each day would throw a wrench in the rest of the day for their schedules and activities. Why change it for the last 2 months of school, when by now most of them have planned their lives around the current schedule, and have expected it to go back to normal again in the fall. If this were November it would be a differnet schedule, but you’re talking the end of March. It does not make sense to make a big change again 2 months before summer.

“I do feel that this is a long time for my students to wear a masks. So, if we do go to full time school, I will be taking more mask breaks. Half of this time would be used for that. I also feel that extending school to full time for the last 2 months (eight weeks) of school will not benefit my students academically. Most of May is used for testing, leaving April for the extra teaching time.

I am also concerned that some of my parents will not send their child to school. I ready have 1 student who does not come and is parent excuse for being ill. This change would be hard on parents, students and teachers.

Also, it is already stressful enough to get Canvas assignments make and other prep before having to leave a the the scheduled time (4:00PM). This would only give teachers 5 minutes to get out of the building. This year I know that my colleagues and I have be just been prepping day by day. Some of us continue working at home.

I believe we should keep the schedule like it is till the end of the year.”

There is very little left in the school year so it is not work switching. Students and teachers are just beginning to get into a rhythm after the last switch and changing things again now will throw kids off again as they getting into their end of year testing. Teachers are already overwhelmed with everything they have to do with the extra prep time this year. Numbers are still high for covid so it would be most beneficial for all to stay where we are now and not move to phase 3.

Keep consistency for students and teachers

Secondary schools need a full day to learn all the material that needs to be taught. Unfortunately grade school children have mask fatigue by the time we let out with the early out schedule. Going to a full schedule at this time would simply increase that fatigue and behavior issues along with the lack of learning. Currently grade school children are receiving the full academic curriculum with the early out schedule. What they’re missing are extracurricular subjects like PE, Library, music, computers, art, etc. While these subjects are important they can be difficult to keep the children sanitized and social distanced. I encouraged the school board and District to allow secondary schools to go full-time and grade schools to stay at the early out schedule. The bus schedule can still accommodate this because during a regular school year it happened every Friday.

While it seems natural to move into Phase 3, there are too many unknowns about the variants of Covid-19 and their impact on continuing a positive trend. Older students – high school – struggled with the guidelines and caused schools to either close for a time, or return to restricted access; I realize this isn’t the current situation. I worry about the stamina of younger students (and frankly, teachers) to manage a full day schedule at this point in this curious year. It seems prudent to let this year finish as is, and begin anew with a full-day schedule in the fall.

If we teach longer days, we would lose nearly all planning time and would need to stay later than 4:00 to set up and plan for the next day/week. Also if we are still following social distancing regulations, our current lunch schedule would no longer work as we eat lunch at 10:45 am, and students are hungry again by the time we go home. This would involve a great deal of schedule changes, including recess and specialties. Also most first graders (the grade I teach) are already worn out by the time we currently leave, so keeping them two more hours would not necessarily lead to any further academic gains.

I don’t feel like I have a right to vote for anything except high schools. I do not think high schools should go to phase 3. Families and teachers at middle and elementary schools should choose for those schools. Please only count my high school vote.

The students have been through enough changes for the 2020/2021 school year due to COVID-19, including school Phase 1 and Phase 2, and family/extended family, religious, community constraints. Saying this, Phase 2 has been a very positive experience for the students and teachers. It has allowed the students to come to school for the regular 5 days/week, in-person teaching and student learning has greatly enhanced the education of the students and students have been able to settle back into a routine. I feel that going to Phase 3 now will be yet another additional change that can easily be implemented at the beginning of the 2021/2022 school year. Students will expect and know that after the summer break, the next school year will be back to normal – 5 days a week full-time. Yes, students have lost time in their education learning and progress during the end of the 2019/2021 and the 2020/2021 school years, but, despite some student resiliency, I believe it is best to give them some actual stability by remaining in Phase 2 for the remainder of the current school year. Thank you.

Oak Springs and Slate Canyon have been full time all year.

If the concern is grades and the missed eduction, teachers can fill gaps in later years. Going back to school full-time now would place a strong burden on already fatigued teachers. In a normal year, teachers would be more than happy and willing to do it, however, this is not a normal year, and it is time we start acting like it.

I do not think it would be in the best interests of any parties to start some schools in Phase 3 and not others.

Students will struggle with the adjustment to all day school at the end of a very nerve-wracking year. I teach 1st grade and I know students lack the stamina to carry on for a full day of school, especially at the end of the school year when they are getting more and more wiggly and less focused. I think we should finish up the school year as we have it, and start fresh next August with our full day schedule. I also worry about starting March 22nd. That would mean we would only have 2 weeks to try and help them adjust – but all that work would go to waste when they head to Spring Break on April 5th. That would mean another 2 weeks of adjusting and by that point everyone is doing end of year testing and activities. I do not think it is a good idea to squeeze this change in this late into the school year. We are still able to cover the most important lessons each day with students and they are finally used to the schedule and routines we have developed for once this school year.

It would be great!

The majority of high school students and teachers are already feeling overwhelmed keeping up with the current schedule so I think increasing the school day schedule would not be effective to do at this point. How would lunch time work with students being able to take off masks to eat? Will that cause more spread when students don’t put masks on as soon as they’re done eating and will definitely be in close quarters with each other for longer than 15 minutes? This is a question that I’ve had students ask me and honestly, I don’t know how to respond to these questions with a definite answer.

We are exhausted by continual change. Provo School District has been continually changing from one phase to the other and back and forth this year. We finally have some consistency and routine down. Another change at this time of the year seems simply overwhelming for the teachers, staff, and students. Changing to Phase 3 would consist of completely reworking all the schedules for every school. Right now is the time we need consistency and time to focus our attention on end-of-the-year testing, not reworking patterns, schedules, routines, etc. Please just let us finish out this year with the schedule that we currently have. For everybody’s sake please don’t make such a big change right at the end of the year and especially not right before testing. We are all barely surviving as it is.

“The only thing consistent is that the kids have been switched back and forth with schedule changes all year. Can we just leave the way it is now for the remainder of the school year? Can we keep them with a consistent schedule? After Spring Break itâ€™s going to be full steam ahead for end-of-year testing. I think itâ€™s in the best interest of the students to go full day starting NEXT school year.

Another concern I have is the lunch schedule. I know at the High School level theyâ€™ll have one of the lunches starting at 9:30 am. Thatâ€™s a ridiculous time to have lunch! That timeline doesnâ€™t make sense to my stomach or brain at all and Iâ€™m guessing it wonâ€™t be good for the teenagers either.”

I work in behavior intervention and, from a behavior standpoint, transitioning to a full-day schedule would be detrimental. When the elementary schools transitioned from four days a week to five, the behavior issues increased exponentially. Students are struggling more and more with social problem, physical altercations, and defiance and non-compliance. If the district transitions elementary schools to a full-day schedule, we will see even more behavior issues. I understand a desire to have studentsâ€™ learning increase, but with increased behavior issues the students will not be learning anyway. In order for children to learn, we have to address behavior problems before we can support them academically. More time in school does not necessarily equate to higher levels of learning. Itâ€™s an unfair thing to ask of the students who are struggling so much already, and itâ€™s unnecessary pressure to put on teachers and staff. Supporting studentsâ€™ emotional needs right now has to take higher priority if we want them to be able to progress academically, and moving to a full-schedule would not be supportive of the studentsâ€™ emotional needs. It would be better to wait until school starts again in August to move to a full-schedule with a clean slate and time to adjust, as we would in a typical school year.

I think still there are some risks to run full schedule. Still not many people get a vaccine.

This back-and-forth stuff is hard on children. Letâ€™s just finish out the school year as we are. Then next year we can go full-time.School . Children like consistency.

Just finish the year out where we are. If we go to regular release have all the schools on the same early out PLC day, pick a day and use the current release times.

The disruption to the students schedule is already causing a lot of struggles for the students. I think would be better to wait until Fall

“I also support teachers who are still trying to help some of our declared and undeclared online students. Also, we do not need more change at this point as we have students and staff struggling with all that weâ€™ve already endured. Anxiety and suicide ideation is high at our school for both students and teachers. I have to assume parents fall in-line here too. One more quarter, and specifically the last quarter, isn’t going to make a large enough difference to justify the transition trauma incurred. Additionally the highest exposure time for kids is when they are eating together and this would force that. Yes our kids will fall academically behind the typical year, but that is a relative comparison as the rest of the country has fallen behind too. So in many ways we are already ahead. Lastly, we are asking our teachers to do more than the nieghboring districts are doing and we pay them significantly less.

We are dealing with final straws here and I feel itâ€™s one straw too many to go back to phase 3.

I also support parents who have childcare needs that have put them at a financial quandary. (So elementary schools have a different situation.)”

Phase 3 should allow all activities to resume. Sports, concerts, dances, etc

The kids have done enough changing and the teachers redoing curriculum. Please just finish the year as is.

“Wearing masks for a full day of school, speaking and trying to understand students seems daunting. Everyone is tired at 1:40. Extending the time to 3:20 seems overwhelming.

Our schedules have changed so much this year that changing again seems exhausting. All specialty schedules, lunch snd recess schedules have to be changed for students to come back for 9 weeks? All this change and upheaval for an added hour and 40 minutes a day for a total of 9 weeks? In the elementary schools we will only be adding this time 4 days a week since we get out early on Fridays anyway?

So the math comes to this, we get an added 6.5 hours a week for nine weeks. Is it worth all the upheaval in school and private lives to get 54 more hours of teaching until the end of the year. Why not keep the schedule as is and begin in the fall with full days?

Many of these 54 hours will NOT be filled with essential teaching as the teachers are tired. We are all barely hanging on and to ask us, once again, to dig in and pull up your bootstraps is a pipe dream.”

I support a full day of school beginning with the new school year in August. We now have many of our students at IHS who, out of financial necessity, have taken on jobs that begin right after 1:30. The question I have is whether having high school students stay until 3:00 may actually lower our attendance numbers and, therefore, be counterproductive. Another option may be to allow students an optional last period.

Too many unknowns. Vaccine needs more data over more time. Students havenâ€™t received it yet. Teachers & staff outnumbered by couple hundred carriers on a daily basis. But feedback doesnâ€™t matter. District and board work in safe offices while front line people, in this case teachers, take the risks. Do the right thing.

Not until we are mask free

Let’s rock and roll!!!!

changing the schedule for the students in high school would lead to a disruption to teachers (lesson planning and consultation time) students (work schedules , extra curricluars, etc) and would lead to a significant number of students trying to shift to home study or simply dropping 7/8 period which does more damage to their overall education than the current schedule. phase three should be reinstated with the new school year. and also… please donâ€™t start building in the parking lot until summer. this year has already been hard enough on these kids.

I feel it would be best to stay on our current schedule for the rest of the year. We have already been through so many schedule upheavals this year, and each one takes it toll on both students and faculty. Adding 2 extra hours a day, along with state testing, is going to increase student exhaustion.

We have already changed our schedule a bunch of times. We have lost students to other s hook districts because of this. I donâ€™t believe another schedule change for a month and a half of school is worth it. Letâ€™s regroup for next year.

Too soon and opening up tells students and parents the Corona virus is not an issue anymore. School is fine just how it is now….. donâ€™t change this last term. Start new next year.

The vaccines are making me feel safer.

I think there have been so many changes already this year, and I think continuing with 2.5 through 4th term will give teachers and students some consistency and norm for this year. I know that teachers and students have struggled with all the constant change and there are some that have a harder time with change as it is. Letâ€™s just start a normal schedule at the beginning of the year next year.

Maybe after Spring Break? We preach consistency for our kids and constant change of phases doesn’t serve them best in my opinion. Also the prep time that is still being demanded of teachers with the home study option I think validates the early out still in and of itself. I hope one of the positive takeaways we can take from education during COVID is that teachers should always have had more prep time.

We are almost in the 4th quarter, we might as well start fresh the beginning of the 21-22 school year. Itâ€™s already been a stressful year for the kids, thereâ€™s no need to throw in another wrench in the mess Not only that but as the Sped Secretary it messes up all of the appointments Iâ€™ve already scheduled.

How about until 230 and give teacher in our planning time each day. Or Friday off for planning for teachers

During those whole year, Iâ€™ve been very pro-getting students back in schools as much as possible. Iâ€™ve felt that the covid numbers in schools, especially mine, have generally been pretty low and Iâ€™m grateful for that. So far this year, weâ€™ve had so many schedule changes and each change takes a while to settle in. These changes have been hard on the students. Increasing the school day will increase issues with masks, confusion with a new schedule, and wonâ€™t offer that big of a payout. At our school, adding more time to the day will only offer ten minutes extra of each class. At this point in the school year, with only one term left, Iâ€™m not sure if thatâ€™s worth it. Iâ€™ll support whatever decision is made, but those are my thoughts! Thank you!!

There are many in the school who do not keep the state mask mandate. I have students email me every week saying they have tested positive. Didn’t the state government just vote to end the mask mandate in April. This is crazy.

As a teacher, I would recommend that we stay in Phase 2.5. The teachers, students and staff have experienced several phase changes back and forth over the school year. Even though the faculty and staff have been vaccinated, the CDC doesn’t endorse large gatherings within close proximity, even with masks, in which the CDC indicates the US is at a critical juncture with COVID. Phase 3 would necessitate large gatherings for reasonable lunch rotations. Phase 3, in my opinion, would negate any strides made at bringing back non-attendee students. Why? The class periods in the high schools would change from 60 to 80 minutes. Since it has been problematic getting these students back into the classroom, many non-attendees will be even more unwilling to go back to schools with the ending schedule going from 12:30 to 2:30 pm. There is a chance that the high schools will also notice new dropouts in their afternoon classes, since some of the students currently attending the Phase 2.5 schedule will opt out of attending to keep their part-time afternoon jobs. Those same jobs by the students could very well be supporting financially their families’ incomes during the pandemic. Phase 2.5 helps to be considerate of giving teachers prep time in the afternoons during dual teaching of in class students, stragglers that are in the recovery mode and students participating in class remotely. In summary, I would recommend that the School Board finish out the school year in Phase 2.5. Thank you.

I work in the special ed class at Dixon middle school. All the transitions have been hard on the students and continues to be a challenge for them to adapt. Itâ€™s important to take into consideration those students who rely on consistency.

There have been so many changes this year. Please donâ€™t not add one more change. Children need a stable routine. Families and school employees need a stable routine. Please do it make any more changes. Changing time schedules and routines in and out of school is stressful for children. Adding more stress does not make for optimal learning. Working families have a leeway made arrangements with others. It would be very difficult to warrants everything at this point. Please keep things stable.

This school year has had no consistency. I think it would be best to switch to this schedule after spring break. As a first year teacher, it has been so hard to find a routine for my class because a. Iâ€™m a new teacher learning new skills and b. the district keeps changing things.

I worry about the impact this change will have on the mental health of all students. I feel like another transition will only hurt our students and staff. It is not time to ask our students to adjust to something new. It is the time to continue to provide support and consistency. They have been through enough this year and so have the teachers. Please consider the effectiveness of the change and the well being on the students. Everyone wants phase three to happen, but it needs to happen at the right time. And I believe the right time is next year. You can still have prom and be in phase 2.

The teachers and children had been through so many changes already this year. I donâ€™t think itâ€™s fair to put them through another one. There isnâ€™t that much time left of this year. Just let things be and let this school year play out without anymore changes. By the time everyone gets used to the change it will be spring break. If you decide to go back full time at least wait until after spring break.

Why not visit the schools first to see how much work teachers are doing already and realizing how much many schedule change parents have gone through this year? Keep the phase 2 schedule until the end of this school year. Start with phase 3 next school year.

My observation, as a bus driver, is that the kids seem ready to re-engage in full time daily school activities and teacher interaction in the classroom. Required mask wearing until further notice does not seem to me a big sacrifice to getting back to a normal full five day school schedule.

I definitely think my students are better off the closer we get to normal. They benefit from in-person school and activities for their emotional, social, and intellectual health, as well as their physical health.

“Iâ€™d rather have us finish out the year in phase 2.5. Iâ€™d hate to have all of the students back in for phase 3 and then we get another spike in cases and have to shut down. I feel like phase 2.5 has been working well and would love to see the cases diminish almost entirely and then start back normal for the school year 2021-2022. As a custodian it has been difficult adding the tasks of disinfecting classrooms and areas within the school into our normally scheduled job requirements each night. Weâ€™ve done well and Iâ€™m proud of my team for stepping up. I say just consider staying 2.5 until the end of the year. Thank you”

Please do not do this. Our teachers have gone over and above the call of duty and still need time to complete and refine online curriculum that is supportive of students that need to be out of school due to illness and/or mental health issues. This will absolutely NOT be good for our teachers or students. The smart thing to do is to let school complete without any further trauma or disruption. The beginning of the next school year is a perfect and appropriate time to transition back.

I think to change the schedule now would be hard on the students and the teachers. I think it would be best to wait till next year to move to a regular school day. If we were to move to a regular school day, I think it would be beneficial for Monday-Thursday to be a regular school day and have Fridays off for students and teachers. Students work get caught up, work on their I Cans and do online school. Teachers can get their lesson plan time back especially for 50 minute class periods, grade, complete or do an effective professional development and PLC. Overall, I think it is too early to move phrase 3 due to scheduling, routines and teacher planning time with Canvas & blended learning.

I’m interested in following the national CDC guidelines and not jump ahead of ourselves. Dr. Fauci, chief medical advisor to the President says it is too soon to “open up” the country. Let’s leave things as they are, calm and orderly.

“The department I work at was not listed above. With less than three months remaining of this school year Why make this change now? Some of the department don’t have enough staff for this reason I don’t think is wise to make the switch, students have gone through enough changes already let them finish this school year the way it is. How is this going to affect your employees? Some of us are going to loose hours of work because of this change. Thank you for your time”

I donâ€™t feel safe going to school on these circumstances and I donâ€™t think that we are ready to go back to school full time. We are already facing so many problems and trying to get a little better and we donâ€™t want to go back to quarantine.

It is best for students to be in school as much as possible. Students need the interactions with the teacher(s) and with the other students. Students learn better “in-class” than online. If students are “in school” then we can better monitor their progress and look for any problems we see in our students’ lives and attitudes. Being “with” our students in-person allows us to show our love and concern and notice where they may need our help (academically, emotionally, financially, etc.).

Why can’t we make a change in August when we are fresh and ready to begin anew? This has been a stressful year. We have settled into our class routines. Why require a change for only 50 school days?

Let the students have some consistency.

There has been too many changes and chaos for the students this year and any further changes will only have a negative impact.

I feel like transitioning before spring break is difficult. If we have to go back to full time, I would prefer that we started after spring break. I also worry that mask fatigue is going to play a huge factor with the students and their behavior and performance.

I think the school district and the employees have done an excellent job at keeping all students, and all staff safe.

I was under the impression phase 3 meant back to normal school with no restrictions. I have to vote NO under current conditions. I definitely want my students full day, but ONLY if they would eliminate the social distancing restrictions for elementary, and requiring teachers to wear a mask. I would need my students to be able to have an additional recess on the playground (not just a mask break) besides lunch, They need to be able to come sit at the rug together, put their desks back together in tables without screens, and allow them to share materials. In the current conditions it is too difficult, and especially for them to stay seated all day.

We should pick up full days next school year, 2021-2022. The kids cannot handle anymore changes. The shorter days are their new normal. If the days were extended we ( the admin and teachers ) would see an increase in behavior from students. The students stamina for long days is not developed for this year. Again, it’s better to do the full days next school year.

The constant transition between phases is frustrating for teachers and students. I need the extra time for putting assignments on Canvas and sanitizing everything in my room.

“As the blended learning coordinator and Canvas Admin for our school, I will say that most teachers still need time after school to set up and create assignments online for their students, many of whom are still needing to use online materials when they and their families have to quarantine. These assignments take time to create especially if they are to be engaging assignments that help the students progress. The less time teachers have to prepare this, the worse off those online materials will be. If we can invest the time this year, and stay in this current phase, teachers will have more time to create quality online materials for students not only this year but for years to come. Keep in mind the lessons created last spring are NOT a substitute, as many teachers used Google classroom and we were instructed to only give 20 min worth of material a day if any at all.

That being said, a transition to phase three would allow for our school to have more remediation time with the students and provide students more incentives to work hard on their assignments to improve their grades. It might even lead to parents being more willing to push their students to succeed instead of using the schedule this year as an excuse for why their student is not doing well. That being said, I still believe these pros are outweighed by the lack of time teachers will have to prepare online materials for students if we switch to phase 3.

The students don’t want to move to phase three either.”

I think the early out for the high schoolers has been very helpful in being able to manage school work and extra curriculars. They have been so flexible through the whole pandemic, just let them finish out the year.

My main concern is the time it would take away from trying to facilitate the home schoolers.

Lunch would need extra precautions. It would be a very inconvenient to start 2 weeks before spring break. Bussing.

Constantly changing is exhausting and we are almost to the end of the year

I am only affiliated with Wasatch elementary school (with one kindergartner in our family). From my perspective, moving to attend school full time does not increase my childâ€™s risk of exposure, nor does it further increase the teachersâ€™ risk at this point. I hope the children can attend full time as I see it as a benefit for their academics! Thanks so much for taking our perspectives into account.

“Increasing the quantity of time does not increase the quality. Our students don’t have the stamina to add 2 hours to their day.

Our Education system has been turned on its head. Now is our chance to change education as we know it. The old setup was designed to teach kids to work in factories, to be quiet, to be still. Even the time of months was designed around the harvest schedules.

We need to train students to be inventors, scientists, and innovators. We need to prepare them for the future! Our current system does not do this, and adding more of what we don’t need isn’t going to help. Students don’t need full time.”

Yes, I just wonder about custodial getting everything cleaned and not staying in the building so late. But yes I support phase 3.

we are not ready for that.

My worry is not Covid- it’s the emotional state of the students. I feel like elementary students need some stability and we keep changing things on them. Every time we do we see an increase in anxiety, misbehavior, and emotional outbursts. There are so many of our students who come from unstable homes, who need the routine. They need things to stop changing. It will take the younger students several weeks to adjust emotionally and mentally to the new schedule and then we are out for the summer. So, with such a short amount of time left in the school year, I think the negative effects will outweigh the benefits. Especially if we ever had to move back phases. It’s too much. Right now- they seem happy, adjusted and loving the 5 days a week. But that took us some time to get them use to and we dealt with a lot of emotional turmoil when the change came.

“Working at an elementary school, my main concern would be the adjustment it would be for these young students to have to be in school for another 1.5 hours a day.

As an employee who can work up to 29 hours a week, the extra hours a day would put me over my allotted hours and it would require some shifting to make sure I was within those hours each week. Not to mention all of the other employees in my same situation. There would be a lot of schedule shifting in order to make this work.

And as the parent of a high schooler whose school schedule has been adjusted so many times this year, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. From what I can see, teachers are doing a really good job of covering their lessons in the current one hour time period. Adding another 30 minutes to each class period seems unnecessarily and possibly time not used wisely.

I would suggest that we finish the school year as it is and pick up with a regular schedule again in the fall.”

Maintaining consistency is more important than a few extra hours of class time.

March 22 seems much too soon to move to Phase 3. Elementary principals are having to completely redo their entire master schedule, teachers have to completely change all their plans for the future, and students don’t seem prepared to be at school all day long. Putting it off until after Spring Break would help with prep time significantly.

We must emphasize good habits to prevent sickness and strength immune system. Our bodies know how to eliminate viruses.

“I think it would be better if schools do 4 days of full schedule so we have one less day of transmitting disease. It’s the best compromise for both sides and minimizes the spread of disease the most.

I still have so many kids absent every single day due to being sick (whether it’s sick leave in Powerschool or they email me separately letting me know). I don’t trust what parents may or may not be reporting considering how my kids are absent daily.

Even though I feel like y’all have already made up your minds, please considering going back to full schedule 4 days a week.”

“My students are already struggling with anxiety and depression, are already exhausted from the last year and I don’t believe we will see less kids fail if we move to phase 3. We will see more because we are adding more to their plate and they are not accustomed to it. They are drained and we as teachers and staff are very drained. What is the point of doing this for 7 weeks?

I also FIRMLY believe this will greatly increase the number of students who will elect to home study,”

I personally say leave school schedules as is! Thatâ€™s WAY too long for the kids to be wearing masks. Theyâ€™ve gotten use to a semi-normal schedule. Why change it now? The hours we currently have are good. Please keep them the same so they can have that normalcy til the end of this school year. Re-evaluate during summer break and go from there. I donâ€™t agree or support this change at all. Not at this time.

The children have been adjusting to changes all year long.If we do another change I think it will be very hard for all the children involved.If there will be no specialty’s in the elementary school the kids will not do well. I think behavior will rise as well.The kids are tired and not nearly as productive in the afternoon. I feel we should go to regular schedule at the beginning of the school year not 3 months before school ends

Leave it how it is

“The teachers, the aides and the students are exhausted. This pandemic has been so stressful! A longer day would be longer time for all of us to be in a mask.

We are having nearly the same results in our scores as in previous years because we have cut out the extra things and just teach what is essential. If you want to change something how about we remove the shields? Try that for this last term and see how that goes before we change the length of the day.”

Kids needs to be at school full time.

I am supportive of returning full time to school. However, mask fatigue among the students (and faculty) is a concern, as well as the transition for younger students (kindergarten).

The school year is almost over and students have been through a hectic year. I realize cases are declining but I think leaving well enough alone for the rest of the year gives students a sense of normalcy.

I would be supportive of staying in Phase 2.5! The students and teachers have had enough changes. I have seen my students finally adjust to this schedule and they are doing well. Please don’t make anymore changes this school year.

This has been a rough year for all involved. I feel like we are finally in a routine. It would be so difficult to transition AGAIN.

Phase 3 should be postponed until 2021-2022. Parents and students and staff are too stressed from the flip flopping. The virus and vaccine are not over. Letâ€™s start with full days 2021-2022

I don’t think that full time school would allow teachers the planning time to serve their students in the best way possible. It would take away from the time that teachers have to plan. In addition, student dividers at desks make it difficult to monitor students during whole-group instruction and students are often tired by the end of the day. I doubt that an additional hour or two of school would be very effective as the students are already tired and ready to go home by 1:45.

This would be the best move for the kids and their academic achievement and development. Getting back to full days will not only allow us to cover more necessary content, but it will help the students begin to build up their stamina again.

I think we are ready to start with 5 days and regular schedule.

Masks on elementary children for that long would be extrememly difficult.

There are too many unvaccinated parents of school children. We may be putting them at risk.

I’m worried about not having enough time in the school to get prepared for the next day. The copiers will be filled with people everyday, if we get out at 3:20 and are expected to still leave our school by 4:00 pm. Can we have a little more time?

I am an AM/PM kindergarten teacher. I would love more time with the kids!! For families’ sakes it should probably be all or nothing for the whole district.

“There are only about 40 days left and I think we should just stay phase 2 to play safe. It will be too long for those younger kids to wear masks for a whole school days. I am not sure how we are going to do specialities in a safer way.”

I don’t support phase 3 for any of our schools. Students and teachers have had so many changes throughout the year. Adding another change I think will be the straw that breaks the carmel’s back.

Students are doing well in phase 2 and I think we should keep these hours permanently.

“I’d support if this means EVERYTHING is opened back up. If we are going to class full time, students should be able to go to dances and all extracurriculars that are offered in a normal school year. I don’t think we should go full time in middle or high schools if we are still limited with other things. If it’s safe enough to open for class, it should be safe enough to open all activities.

Allow more attendants at sporting events and performances.”

Our kids need consistency right now more than anything. They have had to switch back and forth between phases all year and at a moments notice. Maybe we could follow what Alpine has done and stay in phase 2.5 for the rest of the year. The stress you are adding to students and teachers is unfair and short-sighted!

I donâ€™t feel like it should be changed….I think just finish out school year as is. Itâ€™s safer!

There have been too many changes to the schedules this year. It is too confusing for all students. We need to do away with the mask mandate before we move on to phase 3. There is no reason to change things this school year because it is almost over. Wait to start until next year.

No early outs and no late no start

Please lets stop early outs, and late starts. Thank You

Consistency is best for students. Students and families do not need to see another change to deal with. Please let them finish up this school year, as they will rise to the occasion.

The majority of the nation is out of school, going back completely is completely irresponsible and tone-deaf to the current situation. I think it is pathetic that timpview is so adamant about moving from phase to phase. Many students, parents, and teachers have adjusted to all of the current changes and I don’t think anyone is ready to take this next step. Yes, we are a bit behind, but compared to the rest of the nation we are significantly ahead. How about we accept where we are right now and realized that we only have about 1 term left and moving into phase 3 is going to be detrimental to ALL of us. I wish the school district recognize that a lot of us do not have the time to go into phase 3. Many of us have gotten jobs and have new schedules that would completely be thrown off by this change. I genuinely believe that this change into phase 3 will harm students’ grades and their mental health. It is also important to recognize teachers will not be compensated for doing school in person and also doing schooling online. This is a bad idea, plain and simple.

“There’s only 1 more term of school. Teachers are already overwhelmed and students will be as well. plus if there are still kids doing homeschool teachers will have no time to do online stuff. they don’t have enough time. I do not think it would be wise.”

For the students mental health, and the conditioning the schools have implemented through the year, itâ€™s better not to change it for the last term. Especially because most kids are going through spring fever and burnout. Please donâ€™t go through with this.

Some students have to work now because of family financial reasons. Some people just can’t take the mental stress of being in full time. If they were to go to phase 3 they would face backlash due to opening classes full time but not any extracurricular like clubs. And Phase 3 would only be for a term. at that point, you might as well just keep things the way they are. Phase 3 so far is a bad idea for now.

“I think the high schools could benefit from having longer class periods so the students can have more time to learn the necessary materials. As for other schools I think we should just stay on the schedule we have now. Thereâ€™s no reason to change school for just 2 months. The kids are doing fine. Donâ€™t change it! Letâ€™s just go to phase 3 at the beginning of the next school year!”

Making a schedule change at this time of year will impact the teachers, other staff, students and parents in stressful ways. It is very stressful and difficult to make changes. The students take a long time to get used to the changes and present challenge for the teachers. It wouldn’t be worth putting us through another stressful change to only have about 6 weeks of instruction (given that we are going into the end of level testing phase, that means that about 3 weeks of schedule changes have to be made and teaching time goes down during this time.) In addition, this puts added burdens on parents that already have made job schedule changes.

Our principal has done a really good job following the COVID guidelines as outlined in the return to school manual. We don’t gather at the rug for instruction. With the desks spread out as far as we can get them, there isn’t even space to gather in the room. We have a 30 minute Specialty Time to try and give the students a break from sitting in their desks and a 30 minute lunch period. This makes for a very long day wearing masks and sitting in a desk for young students. I do not believe that in this format and learning environment additional time is going to enhance their learning. I believe that stress for both teachers and students will escalate. Student behavior problems have increase with every transition. Lengthening the school day for the last term of school will most likely not have much of a positive impact on learning. If we go longer days, my principal needs help knowing how to balance the COVID guidelines and this schedule. I know that many parents, teachers and staff have really appreciated that she “follows the rules”. It has made many feel safe about coming to work or sending their children to school.I am not sure what the reaction would be if she backs off on adhering to the guidelines in the way that she has up until this point. From what I can tell most schools haven’t been adhering to many of the guidelines besides wearing masks for quite some time.

We’ve already had too many schedule changes this year. Every other month the students and staff have had to adjust to a new schedule, and it’s been exhausting and made this year feel so disjointed. Let’s actually keep some consistency for this last part of the year. We’re to close to the end of the year to be changing at this point anyway. Plus, many high school students have gotten jobs earlier in the afternoon because of the early-out schedule, so they wouldn’t be able to go a full day at this point anyway.

I am in social work and have seen anxiety really hike up this year among students due to so many changes happening. I think that the kids have had enough transitions this year, and should finish out the year as things are.

Spring break and Rise testing are going to take away from instruction time even if students are in school longer each week.

I think the students need to be in the school. It seems that there are too many students not coming to school who aren’t doing anything. If they were at school they would at least get something.

I don’t think that the teachers can handle all of the extra work, also, I don’t think the students and faculty can handle one more change. It has been a crazy year and I think we should start next year.

I am an elementary teacher, and I would only want to transition to full time if we are allowed to have our students switch classes for DLT. We REALLY need the targeted help for the students and sometimes the teachers desperately need a change from the challenges of our own students.

The expectations are already unreasonable and more time with students plus the current expectation is just too much!

“for the schools, teachers, and students this would be a problem. Right now I use the half day to help those who are still doing a at home learning these students are not attending but are doing everything in canvas taking this away would ruin their education and force those that are not 100% about attending in person to do so as it would be the only way to get the quality that they need.

Also how would this work for schools like provo that have a 1st and 2nd lunch how are you going to social distance the kids during lunch. This switch would also be the 5th change of scheduling that the district has had for provo high.

We are a little less than 2 month away from the end of school let’s ride this school year out with the schedule that we have and at the beginning of next school year go to our regular school times. This plan to change again just does not make sense.”

“The difficulties placed on all of us because of the shortened school day / week may have been equal, but until we are able to return completely to normal, (no COVID-19 threat, no masks, no one quarantined, no one forced into online-only learning), we have to teach under the exact same circumstances as from the beginning of the pandemic. Teachers’ workloads have not diminished one iota just because we are face to face. All of our lesson plans must still cover those who are in-school and those out-of-school for even one day. We never know who will be staying home for an extended period. In fact, the expectation is that we have online lesson plans ready, now, for anyone missing as few as one day. That was never the case before the pandemic.

As the number of days and hours of in-person school increased, and especially now if we return to Phase 3, all the extra time we’ve had for our doubled workload has diminished and will disappear completely. It’s an impossible task we’d be expected to undertake. Would there be any compensation, salary increased or more benefits?

Let’s be clear about extra aides the School Board promised: It would not lessen the teachers’ workload a bit, but increase it. We’d not only have to do online and in-person lesson plans, but also collaborate with them. Could they, as well-meaning as they might be, prepare lesson plans on their own? Not on your life!! Do you know what kind of ramifications that would produce?

In short, my response is a resounding NO!”

I feel that middle school and high school might receive more benefit by going full days since it would allow time for each of the different subjects. Lunch time would still be a concern. In elementary, behavior problems have increased with each phase change that we’ve made. We will have to go through a drastic schedule change, which would seem like starting a new year when we’re actually starting to wind down. Lunch times may be later for some students, which takes a lot of adjustment. Trying to get them to focus longer as spring fever comes, will be much more difficult than in regular years, and not beneficial to start now. I feel that keeping it the same now would be best, but I hope that next year we go back to full days and that we can be on a regular schedule then.

The extra time in school hopefully will help students start to catch up from the Covid learning loss.

“We clearly have more data now than we had this time last year when everything shut down. I think what we’ve learned, and what has been smart, has been to phase in the youngest first who (A) need in person instruction the most and (B) are the lowest risk to contract or suffer serious effects from the virus. I think giving them a few weeks lead is smart and would reinforce the decision to return phase 3 for all grades or give better data saying we came in to soon.

Also, I think that having remote options for the future is crucial. Adult learners are better served being able to be remote and they have been keeping their cameras on and discussing things. I feel that the flexibility to choose courses and schedules in high school particularly is extremely beneficial and should be considered strongly going forward. I think we’ve gained great value from the 4-day school week as teachers, parents and students as well. I hope our aim to return to normal doesn’t eliminate what we’ve learned and accomplished in the year of the pandemic. Returning is good. I’d love to not wear masks every day. But we need to seriously consider how some of these things have helped students we weren’t reaching before, and how it improves their quality of life by having options that serve their needs.

I also teach full-time theatre in Salt Lake district (that spent most of the year fully remote) and think that balance is key to future success.”

“This current schedule is best for students and employees. Phase 2. Students & employees are finally in a routine that includes sanitizing throughout the day. Masks are extremely hard to wear that long. I get a headache everyday. Utah County is still 1 of the highest with Covid cases. It is testing time not learning. Springtime is hard to keep students engaged in learning.”

Very tough to transition for just the last 2 months of the school year. Work schedules for students are already set as well as other faculty members. The current schedule is fine.

I think we should stay like we are right now. 5 days a week and half days. If the numbers stay low. Than in August when we come back to school. than start the school year with 5 days with full days. Plus we only have about 10 more working weeks until the end of the school year. I didn’t count the week offspring break and the rest of this week.

Maybe it will be less stressful for the kids to do study in the classrooms.

Strict observance of the Covid-19 guideline should be implemented.

“Our students have been through a lot of changes this year. They have adapted beautifully. However, you are asking our wonderful, happy students to not only make another HUGE change moving to Phase 3 but to do it during a time of year where their focus should be on the end of year testing. Every time our students go through a phase change, there are anxieties, feelings of uncertainties, and just plain tiredness. You are asking these children to face all that as well as to be successful and do their best on an end of year test. A test, I might remind you that will be new to not only our third graders but also our fourth graders. Our fourth graders have never taken a test of this magnitude. They didn’t get last year to “”work out the kinks”” or be prepared for this year. Not only is this a “”new”” test for them, but the students are being tested on our new SEEd standards for science, using our new math program and navigating the testing platform.

I miss my students and would love to have more time with them. Is it really in their best interest? We are already so late in the school year? Are we really going to ask them to change “”again”” for the 3rd or 4th? Not only will it affect student’s as individuals, but it will also affect house holds and families. Schedules will be rearranged again. Groups and organizations will have to reorganize. Yes, change is possible but is it necessary at this time? Is it beneficial at this time? Who are we really make this change for? Questions to ask.”

I feel that our elementary students, parents and teacher have already gone through so many changes this year, that adjusting to a new schedule would be very difficult. With our present schedule, we almost have the same learning/instruction time as we would on a regular schedule: less transition from room to room, less recess and lunch time, etc. I feel that the safety precautions (vaccines, social distancing, shields, and masks) have prevented a lot health issues.

The half-day kindergarten needs more class time. 2 hours a day is not enough time and these students are behind. We have tried to push these littles as much as we can.

Kids need to be in school. The damage being done to our students is far greater than any damage by the Covid virus. It would be great to see them have some normalcy. My only concern is the amount of time we are limiting oxygen intake to their little developing brains, but again, it would be worth the benefit.

Younger students in elementary school need time to build their stamina to be at school for the full day. By this point of the year by the time they build that stamina the year will be over, and the extra classroom time will be spent managing tired and lethargic students rather than giving them extra learning time. Their routines have changes so much in the last year, at this point in the school year, one more change is going to be to much for them to handle.

2 extra hours for the primary grades would be hard on the students. They need to build their stamina for being at school for the full day. We only have 2 1/2 months left, just let the kids keep the routines that they already have.

I feel we should stay on the schedule we are currently on now for the remainder of this school year. Students on the elementary level need consistency and by starting a new schedule at the time of the year when we are doing standardized testing seems a bit unfair.

I can’t speak for how Phase 3 would impact high school and middle schools, but in elementary it would increase the amount of behavior problems as students are still recovering their stamina from an extra long summer, students emotionally struggle with the constant phase changes and lack of stability, and we are so close to the end of the year. Leaving it at phase 2 means that when there is a spike in cases after spring break, which there will likely be due to traveling, there will still be time to deep clean the building. Change fatigue is a real thing, something summer months and nice Thank You videos may not be enough for teachers to recover from. I know you are thinking about what is best for the students this year–but may I suggest that include that their teachers come back still enjoying their jobs and district next year.

“Moving to Phase 3 completely changes the safety dynamics of in-person school. Lunch at Timpview High School will involve 2 or 3 lunches with about 800-900 unmasked students within 6 feet of each other for 30-40 minutes every day. This is not safe at all. NOR do I want students eating in my classroom. I don’t want this risk for others in the community either. This change would only increase class time for about 2 months of the year and is not worth the risk. We have adjusted to phase 2.5; please leave us this way as consistency is another important issue. Alpine will remain 4 early-out days a week for the rest of the school year, and we now have 20% more in-class time than they do. Moving to Phase 3 would be a huge change late in the school year with serious safety considerations and a relatively small payoff (essentially 2 months of longer classes). I also question the idea that this will help our most vulnerable students. It is not likely that those who are now not attending or engaging will change because the classes are 30 minutes longer and school goes until 2:15. Please keep us in Phase 2.5 and allow us safety and consistency for the remainder of the year.

We are also not addressing the schedule of our high school students … I have several working to support families due to job loss. When will they be able to come in for help?

Elementary and middle issues are completely different than secondary, and exploring different models for the two groups is appropriate.”

No Way! Until we can take down the BLOCKERS that the KIDS/teachers CANNOT SEE/hear THROUGH, why would we make them sit in their seats even longer? They cannot get up and interact, we cannot hold Tier 2 and have the students rotate to better help them, and teachers are already going home EXHAUSTED with the learning style adjustments and lack of rotation that is already happening. We finally get something that is working (your score focus), and you want to change it AGAIN? So many teachers already want to walk away, why would you add to their load? Right before testing?! You’d have to be fully staffed for music/band for the 6th graders, etc… as well. We don’t even have enough para’s because of our already short sub supply. We should not go full time until we lift the mask mandate. Have you ever tried to socially distance grade school kids? For 1/2 a day? For a WHOLE day? How many times do you think we have to remind kids to pull up masks all the way? To stay away from each other? To Wash/Sanitize their hands? Only 2 kids/bathroom at a time with 100 kids/grade level? I can only imagine how tiring/harping this will become with full days!!

we only have 50+ days left and half of those are testing days. It is tough enough for students to sit, in masks, and focus. Preparing for testing is already stressful enough. I feel that we need to finish out this year and start fresh and full-time next year. Kids/teachers are already feeling anxiety and stress this year.

As much normality as possible would be good for the kids. Many are struggling. Soon those who want vaccines will be done getting vaccinated. Is it possible for the students and faculty to not wear a mask when that is complete?

Only if they allow students to switch groups for Tier 2s, have specialties, able to have extra recess….our normal pre Covid schedule.

PLEASE listen to the teachers. This is NOT the time to change the schedule again. Vaccinating the majority of the population will be completed by May, so why not opt for safety for the rest of the school year for the students, staff and families of all of those. Wearing a mask, distancing, coordination recesses and lunches without being able to overlap, etc is already difficult. We will have to rethink the whole organization and schedule of the school for a short 9 weeks, (broken into really three distinct pieces, before Spring Break, after break, and after testing. This seems illogical. We will finally get down the new possible change, and the year will end. Asking students to wear masks 7 hours and to take on additional learning hours as the testing window begins is also is a concern. I would rather have students focus on testing, not on adjusting to longer days (which IS a big adjustment). I can see students basically zoning out for the last hour of learning because they aren’t used to it, just as they are tired the first few weeks of a new school year. I am anxious to have the students full time, but we have changed schedule MULTIPLE times this year and we should leave it alone and finish the year strong and not with chaotic change. We are working hard, learning IS happening, and students ARE having success. Next fall is the right time to be back to full days. PLEASE don’t mess up our current schedule, I believe it will do more harm than good for the students.

I think it’s time to listen to the teachers. We are the ones in the trenches having to work with students. They are wearing masks and are not happy to be wearing them anyway. How can we ask them to wear them an additional almost two hours? They are already struggling. By this point, we have all dealt with HUGE changes. We have all taken it in stride. The students are LEARNING and are having success. Why mess with a schedule that works? Let all of the adults get vaccinated (parents included) and let’s start next year off with a full day schedule. If you insist on having us go back full day, it would be essential to bring back all of our prep periods; two times per week for music and PE, one time a week for library, and once every other week for art. Additionally, why would you have the students start full time BEFORE Spring break? Why change the schedule before a break? Why have them start AFTER Spring break, when we will only have a few weeks left before the end of the year, and testing will be the main focus? We have changed schedules MULTIPLE times THIS year alone. I am excited to have the students full time again, but NOW IS NOT THE TIME! PLEASE listen to the teachers and not the parents this one time.

I am not sure it is worth it to move to a full time schedule for 40 days. Right now we do not have any specialty classes, which allows us to use all of our time for academics. If we change the schedule, we will be adding 1 hour and 40 minutes to the day. One hour of that time will be put towards specialties. As a result, we will only be getting about 40 extra minutes to teach each day. I don’t know if constitutes creating an entirely new schedule with new times for lunches/specialties/interventions for all grades.

Students and staff are already under an immense amount of stress. Students are already struggling immensely with academic stamina and behavior issues. Increasing the length of the day will be a challenge and I can’t imagined the increased instructional time will actually have a positive benefit. Teachers, students, parents, custodial staff, nutrition staff etc have already had to make several changes regarding logistics and schedules this year. It is unfair to move the target and make another change this close to the end of the year. As a parent of a typical student with no academic struggles, I see even their struggle with exhaustion and mask fatigue, I can’t imagine making the day longer for them either. Teachers still need time to Zoom with or create distance learning content for students who are quarantined or in isolation and need the shorter day for that as well.

I’m only somewhat concerned about lunch periods. It is an unmasked activity and at some schools, we are already beyond building capacity which will make distancing impossible. I’m curious what has been done at neighboring districts, if anything, and what kind of trends they are seeing.

I am unsure if highschool and middleschool are ready for this transition, but elementary schools need the extra support time and have shown they can be safe and responsible.

I would be supportive if masks were not required. I feel that I, and the students, have had enough of the masks after 5 hours. To require them to be worn for 7 hours would be highly stressful and would lead to excess fatigue, loss of alertness, and increased behavior issues.

I feel strongly that the students are familiar with the schedule and that they actually do better in their schoolwork because of the shortened day. Also, teachers have been stretched more than any other time this year and to revamp the schedule and keep students engaged at this point in the year would be pushing teachers over the edge. We keep getting the message that the district understands how demanding this year has been and yet we are given more and more to do with less time and energy.

Looking forward to having all students back in school for full days.

I am at several elementaries and Sunrise Preschool throughout the week. I would feel comfortable moving those schools to phase 3. I am not as sure about secondary schools, as I am not in those buildings.

“I feel some concern about expectations for teachers doing blended learning. Since the time will no longer be built into the day, should students return their Chromebooks completely? Especially in the lower elementary grades, the devices aren’t necessary. Providing a tablet for each kindergartener in the event of distance learning would be much more developmentally appropriate. Teachers should be able to provide feedback and help decide new schedules, to ensure that full day school doesn’t just feel like two hours of empty time.”

“Too soon to let our guards down. Be going phase3 we are telling students “”All is clear, “” Its hard to keep them in their masks as it is now for an hour per class. As a Teacher. I am lucky to change my mask as needed. No drinking fountains are available. no locker room facilities available, we are stretching with no social distancing in our classrooms. I have 35-37 students in most of my classes. I only have enough seating if there are absences. Lunch will be a mess trying to host 2 lunches now. The Special ed students will struggle with ANOTHER new schedule. Lets just stay the course as it is now and make major changes next school year. I VOTE TO KEEP THE SCHOOL SCHEDULE AS IT IS NOW.

Its alot of work to teach a regular school load schedule and also have to do the CANVAS assignments for the Home study students. I have a lot of extra work for those students that need to stay home and can’t attend school. Just a few ideas.”

I feel like it would be great for us to finish out the year on the current plan. We have gone back slowly with each phase and I feel we have been successful. This has been a hard, challenging year and it would be nice to just stay consistent for a little while. We have found a way to get students engaged, we are finally able to settle into a routine. It feels like when we finally figure something out, it changes. I would support elementary students going back full time, but not the secondary schools.

I believe that with the current restrictions and Covid-19 safety guidelines, a full day (especially in elementary school) would be challenging. The students at this point don’t have the transitions that help break up the day. This includes participating in small group work transitions to different classrooms, in-class group work, recess, and many movement activities. We have adapted well though it is still a challenge. I believe that a full day with masks and the current restrictions would be quite difficult for the students. I am not sure if it would benefit them academically if they would have to stay longer with the current safety practices.

As much as I would LOVE to come to school full time, I think it would be hard to transition into something new again for two months. It is so hard to teach in a mask and them behind shields for the time they are here, I can’t imagine trying to teach another two hours in a mask. I am just hoping to be somewhat more normal next year and we can all come in ready to teach and learn. Thank you.

I donâ€™t think it would be a good idea kids arenâ€™t wearing their masks correctly. Especially in the high schools there are kids walking around with out masks and no one tells them anything. If we move to phase 3 the number of students doing that would increase even more since they would have to wear it a lot longer. Even with these short days they still do it and how can we move to phase 3 when we canâ€™t even be near people at games even though we already spent a whole day with them. There would also be way to many kids with out masks during lunch. That will just help spread the virus even more. Over all I donâ€™t think it would be a good idea to move to phase 3. Phase 2.5 has been going very well and it would be best for everyone to keep it that way.

“This is NOT a good idea. We are still in the middle of a pandemic and even though the numbers “”look good”” to you, that does not mean I feel safe in the slightest. I do not want to be responsible for the spread of Covid in my classroom and one of my students taking it home and giving it to their high-risk family members. Having the students in school for longer days will enable for that to happen.

We have already switched so much this year, we need consistency. Each time we go from Phase to Phase, I have to retrain my students again and again.

I do not think having students in class for the whole day will hinder their education at all. I am still teaching them everything I can without the added risk. Plus two extra hours a day is A VERY LONG time to be in a mask. My students are barely keeping them on by the end of the day.

I still have students that need to go into quarantine and stay home occasionally. If we move to full days, there is NO WAY I can give them access to their education. I will not have the time to help them students who are being socially responsible and quarentining.”

The students are used to the current flow of school. Switching it up right before starting end of year testing will likely not help them. Even though I think the longer we put it off going back to â€œnormalâ€ the longer it will take for students to catch up, I donâ€™t think you are doing any favors by trying to force it at the very end of the year.

The spread is minimal in the schools. Open up all the way for all schools. My only draw back is just keeping the same schedule for the remainder of the year might be easier for me as a teacher-but from a student/child point of view they should all come back. minimal risk.

I personally think that we should wait until the mask mandate has been lifted to go back to a full day instruction. The weather is going to be getting warmer inside and out and I think the hour and a half that we are talking about would be better spent without students having to wear masks longer.

I am not concerned about safety; however, I am concerned that all school staff are stretched to a breaking point. After taking into account increased passing time and lunch, we will only achieve a ten to fifteen minute increase in instructional time for each class each day. The benefit is not worth the cost on teachers. Furthermore, families have already adjusted to phase 2.5. Please don’t make everyone in the system adjust to another phase change for 8 short weeks.

I also do not feel it is the best time to transition preschool children to phase 3.

With everything that has happened this past year, we need to stop changing for our student’s sake. Making them switch from every other day, to Monday-Thursday, to Monday-Friday, to all day school is too much for our students. I understand we would have more instruction time and more time in the building, but I think too much is changing for our students in one school year.

“Teachers and students are already tired and burnt out from the nature of this year. Increasing to Phase 3, right before Spring Break and then Testing Season, will just make it harder for teachers to teach and students to learn. Students are not used to being in class full-time, and so elementary teachers like myself will just spend more time on classroom management than actual teaching. It will also tire students right before end-of-year testing, and we want our students to be as rested as possible for that.

I have 25 students in my class this year. 5 of them are on behavior plans or need lots of time and energy put into their education for them to succeed. It is nearly unsustainable as it is. I worry that moving to full day would just burn me out this year.

If we were to move to Phase 3, I think all elementary grades should get two recesses (morning and afternoon), to help reduce behavior problems, student fatigue, and teacher burn out. Teachers should have ample time to prepare and plan, as 2 hours more a day is a lot of work, especially for new teachers!

To sum up, I believe we should wait until August to go into full Phase 3. While the instruction time is needed, it won’t be as beneficial, and students are not used to the longer schedule, and it does take time for an adjustment like that to happen. Starting in phase 3 in August is easier because everyone simply adjusts to Phase 3 right from the beginning.”

I am a mother of a high school aged student. I don’t believe our teenagers or our teachers need any more transitions and changes this year. I am for returning to full for the 2021-2022 school year but not until. This will definitely adversely affect teachers and students.

“I understand the importance of lengthening the school day. It certainly would give me more time to cover things that will be tested (e.g. science) but that have taken a backseat to reading and math. HOWEVER, the mask fatigue is a real thing for both students and teachers. I feel lengthening the day “”with masks”” would be counterproductive over time.

And after Spring Break would be a more natural time to begin something with that kind of impact. At least the weather in April would better accommodate the need for more recess breaks (elementary school). High school and middle schools have natural breaks built into their schedules with the constant movement from class to class. Elementary schools have to manufacture those breaks.”

This is not the time to change. The next school year would be better.

We need more time before another transition. Our students are gradually adjusting but are still not socially or emotionally ready for transition to full days.

We have changed too many things this school year. We just need to finish out the way things are.

Please no more changes for at least the rest of this school year.

I feel that it is really difficult to continuously change the school schedule for students and parents.

It is not safe to have all the kids at school all day long and I also don’t think it good that they are in school every day either. it would be the wrong thing to do at this time. we are not even close to being out of the woods with this virus. we really should still be in phase 1. it is really crazy. we need all the kids safe and staff and all our family’s safe but going this way we wont keep anyone safe. sorry but I so disagree with what you guys are doing and what you want to do.

There is no way to ensure social distancing for lunch time without having multiple lunches (most likely 3 of them). Having multiple lunches would also be very disruptive to the daily schedule. Additionally, students already have a hard time keeping their masks on during the school day; making the school day longer will result in more students not wearing their masks as they should.

Going full time would require students to eat lunch together. I don’t feel like we would be ready for that yet. Our students have not been vaccinated and won’t be later this month.

Any possibility of an early release on Fridays?

The children need stability. School has always been a source of stability. This year the schedule has been switching up and the children havenâ€™t been handling it well. I think we could switch at the beginning of the next school year and it would be less stressful for all of the children and teachers.

Teachers still feel very overwhelmed with catching up. I know I’m the minority teacher here but I teach special education and still teach students online and have some students come in after the students leave to have instruction with me. If we go to full day instruction, it will be very hard to have prep time, teach online, and still have those students come in and receive the instruction time they need and deserve.

I think this is a very bad idea and the district should wait until August to change the schedule back to full-time. Staff, teachers, parents and students will be negatively impacted and the costs of going full time sooner outweighs the benefits. The parents & students who are economically disadvantaged, at-risk, behind/struggling the most will be impacted negatively because many of these students are getting one-on-one time or small group instruction time/tutoring “informally” from their teachers after school. Going full-time these students will get further behind. Part-time staff can’t suddenly become full-time to meet the full-time demands of being a student’s aide full time (etc). Teachers are overwhelmed and struggling having just lost Friday “planning time” and have already planned out future lessons (to the year’s end) based upon part-time schooling that would need to be completely redone. I think many people will quit, someone just quit yesterday and people are considering it seriously. The custodian is very overwhelmed now with all the extra cleaning let alone having less hours to do it (if school is full-time). I think staff & parents are overwhelmed and another shift in schedule will be difficult for their jobs/transportation/childcare and MENTAL HEALTH. Sudden change and lack of consistency in routine really makes it difficult for us to feel safe. I’ve seen increase in staff’s anxiety/depression/suicide risk & more students with separation anxiety struggling withPT

I would like to see the high school go full time, hopefully more would be able to graduate, however the feeling I get is that the students most likely won’t stay anyway. Many now have jobs during the afternoon and they don’t want to quit. One of the high school social workers has asked several students about it and they have said they are just going to leave after lunch anyway. This will make it hard on teachers and truancy officers and parents to then have to figure out how to connect with those students and help them with grades. It’s so hard on students, families, and teachers to keep juggling the schedules so for high school I think they should remain on the schedule they are on for the remainder of the year. But the rest of the students should be going full time; 1-they don’t have jobs, 2-they are so far behind, 3-they learn better in person, 4-young children need the social interaction with other kids and adults for mental well being, 5-it would help parents/families to have them at school.

“Lately I have been having issues with students not wanting to wear masks to the point where I have needed to stop teaching and remind a group to put their masks up while we are on the carpet. I think that issue will get worse the longer my students need to be in school.

If we do end up going to our regular schedule, I would ask that ALL canvas assignments be taken away. I put assignments up in the off chance that students are absent and can do make up work, but they never do. And I won’t have the time to make assignments and stay on top of them if we are in school full time. I would also like to see all schools start the new schedule at the same time. There is no need to start elementary first and then add in the secondary a week later.”

“I stand by allowing secondary schools transitioning to Phase 3 at the end of Quarter 3.

I stand by NOT allowing elementary schools transitioning to Phase 3 at the end of Quarter 3, but rather beginning School Year 2021-2022.”

It’s time for full time school to be back. We need to continue to move towards normal life. No more masks, no more restrictions, no more lockdowns.

Let’s get all students back to school sooner than later – our numbers look good locally and nationally.

As a teacher, I feel like I have finally just figuring out how to do Phase 2.5. With only a few months left of school I think it would do more harm than good to change phases again. I think we should finish the year with what we’re doing now. Give the students some stability and routine within this framework and then try to get back to a full schedule next school year. I’ve finally hit a groove, the students have finally hit a groove, lets not mess with that.

I will go with whatever the district chooses! It helps to have more time in class but the early out schedule has made planning much easier. It may be a hard transition to go full day.

The kids need stability right now. Middle schoolers especially need to keep their schedules. This has been a hard year for them, please don’t make it harder.

“Families lives and schedules have been disrupted for a year. Why would you change the schedule AGAIN and disrupt them even more? Especially when we are so close to the end of the year.”

I believe it would be better to transition for the last term than wait until next year. It would be easier for the students to get back to normal before the end of this year rather than wait until next year. They are already developing some poor habits related to school.

I feel like the jostling that the teachers have already had to do this year with the ever changing schedules throughout the year has been very difficult. At independence we will be in the middle of a hex and our last trimester so the teachers having to rearrange their teaching plans is a tall task to ask of them. Many of the students at ore school have jobs which also conflict with a full schedule of classes so there would need to be a lot of adjustments for many different people.

I believe we are getting closer to normalacy but I also see spring testing, spring break, end of term, and some other spring changes coming. I would believe that we should be careful in this decision because changes can affect student testing, emotional health and physical health. With all of these factors involved with the change on our students and staff, I would suggest changing at the new school year when we don’t have to wear masks for 8 hours and can get back to some normal social events at the school. Looking at the larger picture, to make changes to more normal schedule with wearing masks would be detrimental to our students and staff. Staff and students are dealing better with the Covid situation but I think this change would cause more stress than we need and the outcomes would not be worth the change right now.

Students need consistency. I think we should change it next year.

No because if anything spreads again all schools would have to go back to phase one and still in mid 3rd term kids are barley getting a hang of 2 1/5 phase so we should stay as it is just to stay safe for those kids

Many of our students have parents who do not meet the required age group for the vaccine at this time. We should give these parents who are 65 and younger the time they need to get the vaccine.

A transition to Phase 3 would be better after Spring Break which would be a natural transition time.

I think it might be easiest for the elementary school teachers to have their students back full-time and the the parents to have their children back in school. However, at the high school level students have really struggled with all the changes and many have not earned credit toward graduation amidst all the chaos. It seems that we finally have a rhythm going that I would hate to mess up and having teachers available in the afternoon to help struggling students and to reach out to students not passing has seemed to be what has saved us. Not sure on the middle school end, but I am guessing those teachers also need time to reach out to struggling students there too to help them be successful.

If the health department is ok with the transition to full-time, then I support it. However, I’ve heard there may be a problem with scheduling of lunch times. That’s something that would have to be worked out carefully so things could run smoothly.

Why upset the schedule AGAIN. Don’t you think the parents have had enough changes this year? –not to mention what teachers have to go through to readjust and parents to readjust their work, day care and lives? We are in a solid routine——leave it.

March 22 is too early – you’ll have many programs needing to restructure…. in only 9 days.

To be honest, I’ll support you guys on whatever you want. I trust that you make an informed decision.

I would be very supportive of elementary schools transitioning to phase three. As for middle and high schools I am unsure however on the survey it makes you chose a yes or a no. I am not familiar with middle and high school needs so I would prefer my selection to not impact whether those schools move to phase three or not.

High Schools students need more time to associate with friends and to have more time working on academic subjects.

“Because of the emotional/physical impact of the children wearing a mask, social distancing, sanitizing, etc. throughout the day the students are ready to go home after lunch. I think it would be best to keep things the way they are for the rest of the year. I have heard several teachers express the same feeling that I have expressed. We are fortunate to have in class learning here in the district and in Utah. There are several states that have not had it as good as we do here. It has been a strain in the schools, though. I think we should keep things to remain in phase 2, especially at this time of the year when kids begin to get more and more restless on top of everything we have been working with. It has not been an easy year for anyone teachers and students alike. I think we should not push it. I feel like we still need to keep everyone safe still and consider the emotional as well as the physical impact this has had on everyone involved in the schools including the students. Next school year, I feel is the best time to resume our normal school schedule. I feel like it will be safer at that time. therefore everyone will be ready for Phase 3.”

“I think the kids have gone through enough change throughout this one year another change would not be good. I also know that the behavior of the kids from adding one day to their week went down drastically. By Friday the kids no longer care and are very temperamental, adding an additional 2 hours to every day would not only be hard on the kids but because of their behavior it would be hard on the faculty members too. Suspension rates would go up. March is already such a hard long month on students AND faculty longer days wouldnâ€™t help, it would be a very unnatural transition. The better transition if you had to do it this year would be right after spring break. The best transition and most natural would be to just start full days next year. It gives the parents and employees enough time and preparation to be able to adjust their schedules for full school days. There is only 2 months left, just let us finish it out. In addition to that the Parents have finally figured out their schedules so changing times once again will create conflict in picking up kids from school. Thereâ€™s employees, like myself, who work multiple jobs and with extending the days would create scheduling conflicts that could be hard to work around. For example if we went to 3pm I wouldnâ€™t have time to be a crossing guard because the timing would interfere with my other job. The city is already short 23 crossing guards, and im sure they would lose more than just me. It honestly doesnâ€™t make sense to switch.”

Concerned about the size of classrooms, number of students in a classroom, and ventilation system not designed to help with air borne related virus.

“Reviewing the curriculum map over the next 12 weeks (including spring break) and noticing the amount of testing that will occur, I find going to full days would not benefit the students at this point in the school year.

Not only with the few weeks we have left but also the fact that students and parents will again need to adjust their schedules to accommodate another change for the school year.

My suggestion is keep the school year in it current routine and start out the following school year with a normal schedule.”

Burdening the students with a different routine is precarious when we are so near to the end of year testing time.

We have very little time for preparation, and I feel confident that teachers would be even more overwhelmed if you decided to enforce a whole day schedule. Additionally, the numbers do not justify giving in to parents and completely forgetting your teachers and their needs.

As a teacher, I don’t have all the time and material set up for the additional time in the classroom and to put online. For the students, you are adding time for them just in time for testing. That makes REALLY long days that they aren’t used to, just to quietly sit and take tests. Honestly, I can’t wait to full time, but I think it would go best to wait until next year so everyone isn’t struggling at the end of the year. End with a good note!

I really like the current 2.5 schedule to get lessons planned and time to get everything done that is required.

I feel that we already have routines in place that should see us through the end of the year. I think another change to our schedule is disruptive to the routines and norms we worked hard to establish. Please don’t make more changes to an already crazy year.

“With school only having 3 months left of the year, I donâ€™t think itâ€™s smart to move to phase 3. Youâ€™re putting added stress on teachers and aids to change their schedules yet again. Plus students arenâ€™t used to doing full day right now. That would be hard on them and we could see more behavior problems arising. Not to mention potential for further spread of the virus with longer school hours. Just because cases are declining doesnâ€™t mean we should change a good thing thatâ€™s already working. If we continue wanting it to decline, we keep doing what weâ€™re doing, not change it. I think it would be better to start this schedule next school year, so everyone has time to prepare rather than right at the end of a school year. Letâ€™s not put our students and employees at further risk physically or exhaust them mentally/emotionally.”

At this point we need the instruction- we are all here anyway- I don’t see a reason to not go back

A phased approach would be good. Start with Elementary then work our way up. High Schools and lunch periods will be difficult while trying to keep space and contact tracing.

Having standardized release times district wide is the biggest part of keeping schedules that work for transportation. Multiple early outs on different day at different schools is a nightmare. Please also be aware that Transportation may have a number of drivers who can work our current schedule but the later times may cause these drivers to be unable to cover routes.

The people who suffer from the less time are the students and I want to at least try and give them a final term of full instruction.

The kids and teachers are exhausted from all of the changes so far this school year. Extending the school day by about 2 hours each day would be very hard on both the staff and students, but especially the students. They have gone through so much this last year and this would be another hard thing for them to have to go through as they are already so tired by 1 o’clock.

I think it would be difficult for the kids and teachers to adjust to a full time schedule. There are a lot of kids who struggled when we added back Fridays. They had a hard time focusing, there were some behavior issues, and this was a pretty minor adjustment. I think if we went full time then we would see even more exhaustion, lack of focus, and behavior issues. I just think they would do better if we started full time in the fall, and remained with our current schedule for the remainder of the year.

I would support it only if the mask rule was lifted and made voluntary only.

Athletics and performing arts should be able to begin practices immediately after school. Teachers could have office hours to allow intervention with students who need assistance.

I think it’s best for the students if they are back in school full time!

“I believe we need to finish the school year with the schedule we are at now. Families have had enough schedule changes this school year. Next year would be a great time to start with a regular schedule (and hopefully no masks). It has been enough of a challenge for students to wear a mask with the schedule we have now. To increase that time would be more of a challenge for them (and teachers). Think of yourself being a teacher and teaching in a mask for a full day?”

“1. Adding instructional time in general is a great thing. However, each decision needs to be considered within the context that it exists. In this current context, I think adding additional time will bring negative instead of positive results. 2. Mask fatigue is a real concern. Students and staff have fatigue from masks, and fatigue of masks. It affects physical and mental health. Extending that time, will be very difficult on students and staff. 3. Pandemic fatigue. This pandemic (and all details) have taken a serious toll mentally and emotionally on many students and staff. Increasing this instructional time will, in my opinion, bring out further emotional and mental health stress, thus negating any of the positive factors gained by additional time. 4. Health and Safety protocol concerns. For example, we do not have space for PE because our lunchroom is spread over our gym as well. If we open our gym, we reduce social distancing during lunch. I would also add the need for disinfecting our school each night. We have been told it is necessary to leave by 4:00 so that disinfecting can happen in each classroom. Staff can’t be required to leave at 4 if school ends at 3:20. 5. Timing. This is the time of year when (even on a normal year) student’s and staff’s ability to maximize effort is challenged. Student behavior increases. Adding time now seems too late. That decision (if it were to have been made) should have happened in January.”

I think the Provo School District has handled this whole pandemic with flying colors. I feel blessed and proud to be working here at this time. Thank you!

It seems like it makes more sense to just do elementary schools because we have had so many fewer outbreaks. When you are deciding this though, please consider the fact that all the first graders have never had all day school before and this transition will be terrible, especially with how early their lunch is. Maybe the district could at the very least allocate some money to give them a snack time or something because it’s going to be so hard for these six year olds. Especially when they have to wear a mask for an extra two hours.

Teachers and students are expressing so much burnout. We need to hold strong and make an announcement that it will be this way throughout the rest of the year and not move to Phase 3.

Frequent changes are hard adjustments for students and families who have emotional needs such as anxiety.

I would love to see a transition to phase three. However, being in a mask all day, 5 days a week with hardly any breaks doesnâ€™t seem realistic or healthy. For this reason I chose no on transitioning.

By returning to a full day of school, school staff is limited in their hours of practicing safety measures regarding Covid-19. Regardless of data showing Covid-19 cases decreasing, the virus is not gone and measures still need to be taken in order to keep students, families, and staff safe. When students leave the building early, teachers have time to sanitize high touch surface areas including, desks, countertops, and door handles that are not being sanitized by custodians. In addition to that, if a student were to quartine, teachers would have time to have virtual lessons and meetings with the student whereas if teachers had a full class all day, the quarantined student would not be receiving quality instruction.

The kids here at Amelia Earhart have suffered from the impacts of COVID-19 as much as everyone else if not more, the struggle to work around COVID is very prominent and changing the schedule to have the kids endure more might not be the best decision for now.

With it being so late in the school year, I feel like it would be too much for everyone with all the schedule changes and revamping needed. It would be just like starting a new school year. I feel it would be best to wait to change to Phase 3 in August as we will all be preparing for a new school year and can prepare accordingly at that time. I feel it is best to stay as safe as possible as long as possible and what we are doing now seems to be working well. I feel as a district we have done well through this pandemic and everyone has stepped up even though it has been difficult, frustrating, and very hard in many aspects. I appreciate all that the district has done to keep us safe and taken care of during these uncertain times.

Infection numbers generally have not gone down sufficiently and not enough people (both in schools and in the general population) have been vaccinated to warrant a full time return to school. Students, faculty, and staff are still often absent due to quarantining. All persons serving in Utah schools have put themselves at great risk to return to school in the middle of the pandemic; it would be more reassuring if new covid-19 infections as well as deaths were actually nearing zero.

I think it is too long of a period to ask students to stay in their face masks. However Elementary students are struggling the most with fundamental skills. My daughter for instance is struggling to read. I think that it is important for them to have chances to take the masks off though, so they can get fresh air.

Students need to be in school. This is no different than any other illness that requires individuals to stay home when they are ill. We should continue to encourage people to stay home when they are ill and allow those healthy to continue with life as usual. We can no longer hinder students from a full and complete education. Education is critical to the success of families and communities.

simply for me and my family itâ€™s just been a lot easier for us with this time we have right now. itâ€™s going to be way to complicated again to transition to something and then possibly transition back because of how high COVID cases Can get again.

I work at multiple schools and do not feel we should push to phase 3. I feel it is in our students best interests to remain where we are through the end of the year. I feel our students mental and emotional health will benefit more from staying in phase 2 at this time. I feel we should revisit this for fall of 2021.

Too many changes this year for kids and parents, I believe that we should not transition to phase three until fall.

I am concerned with a full time schedule, the custodian staff will not have sufficient time to sanitize the schools properly in order to continue the positive trend we have been having. Teacher burnout is likely to increase as well since it has been extra challenging to teach during this pandemic.

There are positives to each side of the argument. If the decision is made to move toward phase 3, my suggestion would be to wait until after Spring Break. March is often the hardest time of the year with the fewest breaks (among other reasons) and adding more stress to everyone on the final stretch of March I think would be unwise. The emotional toll it would take on students AND teachers would outweigh any academic benefits. A recent survey at our school revealed about half of our teachers are experiencing moderate to severe stress. Which, is one argument to support just waiting until next school year.

There has been so much change this year and I am seeing teachers and students wearied by the constant changes. I would ask that we hold off until the start of next year for teachers and students sake. If this transition had happened the beginning of second semester I would have been all for it but the changes and changing back have really negatively impacted students and teachers. If the transition happens on March 22 you will have a week of full time school and then spring break. The rest of April is swallowed up by testing and thus impacts the academic day. I just see more behavior problems because students are readjusting to full time school in the middle of the testing window. I think you will lose those students and teachers that are at their limits currently.

We are already seeing the effects of the stress of this past year in the behavior of the students and the fatigue of the teachers and staff. I would prefer to end the year on Phase 2 and start full-time in the upcoming fall.

n/a

Yes if that means that teachers don’t have to do online teaching at all. Why because if we have to don online teacher and teach full day that means that we have to prepare and do online at home with no conpensation.

If the numbers stay low until August than start the new school year in 5 days and full days

“First of all, thank you for seeking our input. There have been so many changes this school year already, that I beg you to please consider keeping the schedule the same. I finally feeling like I have settled into a routine, which meets the needs of my students at school and at home.

I am concerned about how we will be able to meet the needs of our home study students, if we don’t have time in the afternoons to work with them. SpEd students enrolled in eSchool are having their IEP services met through their home schools. If their SpEd case managers are teaching all day, they will not have time to meet the needs of their students enrolled in eSchool. We are legally obligated to provide these services. SpEd teachers are already spread too thin, so we need this extra time to provide a FAPE to our students at home.

If you do insist on changing to phase 3, could you please consider doing it after spring break? It gives us time to prepare for the change and rest before yet another big change during an already challenging time of the school year.”

“-The district may have tried to get rid of â€œhome study,â€ but we are still serving so many students online and are needing to provide our content online. Teachers are still being asked to do more than ever this year, so they need to be provided the preparation time to do that. Phase 3 would not allow that, and while weâ€™d have more class time with our students I am not sure it would be as effective if we did not have proper planning time. -Right now, we are able to contain lunches with social distancing and contact tracing. A move to Phase 3 would not allow that (because teachers would need to be given a duty-free lunch & not able to supervise), and I think we would see a negative impact and rise in COVID cases if lunches were a “”free for all”” once again. -I think those 2 hours after school could be better utilized to invite students needing additional help and targeted interventions, rather than adding extra class time for everyone. I have a hard time seeing the purpose and actual value of moving to Phase 3 for only one term left of school, other than to silence some parents that disagree strongly. All teachers have adapted their curriculum and schedules to make sure we can fit in what the students need to know with the time we are given, and students are just begging for consistency and things to stop changing. -We are about to move into state testing, and a new schedule would disrupt that for students. -Teachers feel like our voices have not been heard or valued all year”

Yes, please, let’s normalize sooner than later. Please be mindful of the excessive amount of time all children spend in front of a screen. Please collect the chrome books and significantly limit the time spent on the chrome books in class. Specifically the 5th and 6th graders are on their chrome books the entire time they are in class. This is not good for these developing brains. If you are going to normalize the schedule, please reinstate all before and after school activities. These kids are starved for face to face connection.

It’s still too cold outside to properly social distance during lunch (because you can’t eat quickly with a mask on and no one is extending the lunch period) and March weather is highly unpredictable. Wait at least until after spring break in April to go full-time for the secondary schools when everyone can eat outside if they wish because the weather is more predictable then and it always snows/slushes the first weekend in April.

“I am hoping for consistency, and I feel that another major change to the schedule will be disruptive for many students. Also, full school days will mean much more work going home for teachers. We will obviously still have kids on quarantine, as well home study optioned students that require online assignments and support. Full school days will create a greater contrast between in person and online learning, which equates to more work for teachers and less time to do it.”

If we do one area, you all need to do it. The elementary schools seems to go to your phases and are consistent and then the other schools bounce back and forth. I feel the students and teachers have had enough back and forth for one year. Leave well enough alone. Teachers are burnt out. Give them a break. It’s really an adjustment for the little ones. They just get in a routine and you change it again. It’s really okay to finish out this year as is and start a new year full time. The board needs to listen to teachers and parents not just parents and that seems to be the case. The sanitation situation will make longer hours for the custodian and his/her crew because of teachers being in the schools longer. Some kiddos will have lunch as early as 11 and then have a very long afternoon. Changing all the lunch schedule would interfere with sanitation and social distancing. High School kids have filled their time with part time jobs, etc. If you decide to go to Phase 3, many students will continue to not attend because of prior commitments. I don’t think you have looked at all that will happen with scheduling by going to Phase 3 this late in the year. Sometimes it’s there small details we overlook and need to go deeper to see how this affects everyone. I’m sure we’ll adjust, no matter what decisions are made, but we’re so close to the end of year and routine is so necessary as you approach the end. We need to continue to be vigilant even though cases are going down

Until I am no longer required to post all my curriculum online, transitioning to a full school day would put a large strain on my time to grade and create curriculum for Canvas. I would also need support from administration as my school as well as personnel higher up in the district to implement stricter deadlines for late work in order to be comfortable with this change.

I do not think switching schedules at this time will be beneficial. I think the students and teachers have been through enough trauma this year and to change our schedule after spending the entire year this way is very difficult. I am a teacher and I would have been for changing schedules if it were earlier in the year. My students have made amazing growth even through we are on a shortened schedule. If we change to full day, I will struggle to keep it together as their teacher. I know the amount of extra work that will follow if we switch to a full day schedule. I hope you will consider the stress load that will come along with going full day for teachers. I would like to keep the schedule we have had ALL year and start next year full day.

I’m in favor of the schools going back to full time but I think it’s too late in the year. All the schedules of the day have to be updated, the starting time for Preschool will have to change, too much confusion for everybody including parents so close to the end of the school year.

The masks need to go.

I don’t know enough about what is happening and the feeling at the Middle and Elementary Schools to answer for them. I do know that at the high school students and teachers are burnt out. Please keep us in phase 2.5 for the rest of this year and move us to 3 next year.

Dope let’s gooooooooo

“You have changed this schedule on us 3 times already this year. It has been a hard adjustment every time. I feel like you have not cared one bit about your teachers and their opinions. Not once as a teacher have I been asked what I think the changes should be. Our opinion and our voices should be heard. This is the first survey we have received and I am grateful I can say what I think. I think we should just stay the 5 short days. My students already struggle coming the half days, if they come full days I can only imagine what that will do to them. If we were to have come back full time at the beginning of the year, this wouldn’t be a problem. It would be something that the students are used. I think what we have already done this year with HomeStudy, coming to school every other day with half days and then half-days everyday. Has already hurt students. I have students who never came because they thought it was an option. They have no motivation to come, and participate in school is very limited. When you made your decisions, you should’ve kept what was best for the students in mind the whole time, especially knowing our demographics. However, now when we have 3 months left, it will hurt them more than help them. If it’s testing you’re worried about don’t be, the tests are going to be unfair no matter how you look at it. Some kids haven’t gone back to school, other have been back all year, and some are like us. In my honest opinion, DON’T MAKE THE CHANGE!! It won’t help!”

“The concern that I have yet to hear about is how student are handling the constant changing schedule. Has anyone asked them? Yes there will be those that just want the shorter schedule, but there will be those with actual concerns about the changing schedule. How are teachers working with the change? How do they feel about the safety? Don’t ask by a 1-5 answer survey, but a ‘here is the questions, type your own answer.’ Because they may be more concerned about their families safety then with their own. My mother is very high risk, were as I would be in the last group to get the shot if I didn’t work in education. I am also looking through a different standpoint due to my job not being the same as other teachers, but students don’t really have time to adjust to the current schedule before its changed again. If they have a job, internship, Distance Ed, etc. This makes it so now they have to figure out their schedule suddenly because the change is not told to the students till a few days before most of the time. Plus the change happens at the weirdest times. Yay! New semester! 2 weeks in. Guess what? New timeschedule starting now. At this point, everyone is settled with the current schedule. Maybe its better to just stay where we are at and work more with helping the struggling students and teachers, then to force another change on them both. Work on helping rather then changing what can’t be guaranteed permanent right now. Come next school year, see about full time all around.”

I am supportive of it, but as a special educator supports should be put in place for students with health risks. I have several students that are still doing home study because of legitimate health risks. If we go back to full days I won’t be able to work with them at all. I’m not sure what the solution is, if we hire a teacher to work with them or what, but I would no longer be able to work with them as I have.

I am ok coming again full time, but just if we keep the mask on and social distance

I see no reason why we cannot go back to full days 5 days a week. with regards to safety, I don’t see how reducing classes by a couple minutes mitigates any amount of exposure.

I am torn on marking yes and no for Middle School only because the classes are so short! (only 30 min each)

I don’t know what other schools are experiencing and what their load looks like, I think if a school feels like their students and teachers would benefit from going full day they should be allowed, I’d like the individual schools to be able to determine what is best for their students and teachers. From my perspective, I don’t think it would be good for the Students or Teachers at Centennial. Every change is hard on the students, and it just adds to their work load. From Students I’m meeting with they feel overloaded, and it just gets worse with each phase. Homework load increased when we went to 4 days a week and kids didn’t have as much time as they did before. Then adding the 5th day, again more homework, and they just feel stressed and overwhelmed. Students who are doing well, continue to do well. Those who are struggling continue to struggle. Teachers still have to support large number of kids that are home because of quarantine and losing more preparation time just adds to their load and stress as well. I’d like to see us finish out the year without yet ANOTHER change, l think our teachers and students are overwhelmed this year….finish out as we are and start next year in a way that is sustainable where we don’t make changes every quarter.

I think helping our students transition back to regular school schedules is needed for their academic success. At the same time, I recognize that this will require extra work by school district employees as we continue to track down and work with students that have dropped off during this hectic year.

We are so close to ending the year. Why don’t we play it safe and go to the end of the year at Phase 2 and start the new school year in August at phase 3. I have grandchildren at PH that have struggled so much this year and have had so much anxiety they and others need a break from changing so much. Why do we have to push everything. This is not something we have ever experienced, one more change might put the teachers and students over the edge.

I don’t appreciate being given such short notice when it comes to schedule changes. It makes planning extremely difficult in an already difficult environment. I am also wary about sending secondary schools back to full time if we are unable to have one lunch. I’ve heard a rumor that Timpview would need 3 lunches in order to observe social distancing protocols and it seems more distracting than helpful to have that many lunches. I do not believe we should go back to full time unless it is safe to go back to the original schedule.

Our students need consistency. Changing the schedule once again is inconsistent and unhelpful to our students. Student stamina is a real concern, and asking students to transition to a full schedule at this point in the year would be counter-productive. The possible loss of after-school programs would also be devastating to our community in particular, as it provides important supports for many of our most at-risk students. Please let our students finish out the year without burdening them with longer school days.

Heard immunity has taken place…

“I gave a survey to the students, I had 54 replies thus far; 45 said no and only 9 said yes.Â Most of them have said what a stressful year this has been, and now that they are finally getting used to their new schedule the district wants to change it again.Â Which is causing a lot of anxiety and stress to the majority of my students. Some of the other reasons included:Â The students are concerned that the longer they are with other students the more chances they have of getting covid and/or taking it home to older parents and ailing grandparents.Â They struggle with wearing a mask until 1:00 and the thought of wearing it until 3:00 (or later if they ride a bus) was unbearable to them.Â Â 10 more minutes per class is not worth the extra stress, anxiety. Parents have had changed their work schedule multiple times to accommodate school schedules, and now to change it again is causing them to be very frustrated As a parent and as a teacher, I am strongly requesting to stay in the current phase we are in. Do not change it for 4th term, these students, teachers and families have been through enough. These students suffer everytime there is a change in schedule, their grades drop, attitude drops, they struggle. My students are barely relaxing and starting to enjoy school, If we change their schedule on them again, we as teachers and students will be starting all over again, for what, 1 term? Please let us finish off the school year in the phase we are in and on a high note.”

The problem with changing every twit three weeks is that of inconsistency. These students are trying to adjust to an already complex system through this COVID Crisis and having a regular schedule would do a lot to calm this crisis down and start to create a norm. Plus the extra time teachers have to put new or enriching content online is time consuming and has already become expected from the school district and the board. We are working harder than any other period in which I have taught 25 years. Leave alone a system that is working and the crisis is calming down. Lunch time would be a mess especially at the high school. My fear is that the cases would sore do to the closeness and lack or masks during that time.

I can’t speak for all teachers, but at least for me, making lesson videos and working through Canvas has made me busier than last year, even with the afternoons available to work.

It”s so hard for the students to wear a mask for many hours, especially kindergarten.

“I think it is very important to make the right decision for each level of learning independently of the others. What might be the best choice for elementary might be the wrong choice for high school and middle school. I feel very strongly that moving to phase 3 at the high school level is the wrong choice. It sends the wrong message to the community. It would be unsafe to have our students eat lunch at school. Shifting to phase 3 would not be following the CDC and other health recommendations. I know some people want to go back to “”normal”” but I would much rather do what is safe, not popular. Our students don’t wear masks the way they should. Reminders from teachers and over the announcements are not enough to enforce safe mask wearing. Have you walked through our halls after school? Every lunch would be a potential superspreader event.

Since I don’t teach at the elementary level or at a middle school, I have less experience in determining what would be most appropriate for them. Luckily elementary students don’t move rooms as much and can spread out lunch more. Middle school poses almost as many problems as high school, but the students are less autonomous than high schoolers.

I really hope you consider the message you send to people. We should not set a flippant example of disregarding science. The community looks to us and we need to take that seriously.”

In my opinion it seems rather redundant to start phase 3 in the middle of their last semester, students are in a habit of the schedule, and ultimately parents and staff as well. If we start phase 3 in August it gives everyone time to prepare for the change. I also predict a high increase of behavioral problems, with students being in school longer with a sudden change like that (as they increased when we added Fridays).

I think that it would be very difficult for students, especially in elementary school to make the transition this late in the school year. If this is a change you decide to make I think it would be an easier transition after spring break.

As needed basis. The elementary schools seem to be less effected, the high schools more so. Even with the HS be more effected, are students recovering fairly well from COVID? If so, then yes I would support them going to full-time too.

I would love to have more time. I feel that our kids have really lost out this year due to the lack of time they have in school. However, I question the timing. Students have spent the majority of the year getting used to a schedule. To switch the schedule right before state testing will cause confusion and stress. School schedules will be thrown into a disarray and need to be rewritten causing both students and teachers stress. Parent’s schedules will need to change. This may benefit them but it may also cause stress if it impacts their work schedules (if a parent picks up a student at 1:45 and goes to work at 2:30, who will pick up the student at 3:30?).

“I would be supportive of all PCSD schools moving to Phase 3 as long as there are clear guidelines that will be strictly followed if a school reaches a specific number of students/staff that test positive for COVID-19. I worry the most about the high schools. These students tend to not follow Covid safety guidelines. If they contract Covid they bring it home to younger siblings that may be in our middle and elementary schools.

Ex. The District decides that a small elementary school can have no more than 6 students/staff test positive or a specific percentage of a secondary population test positive in order to stay in Phase 3. If any school exceeds these numbers they should be required to drop down a phase in order to keep students, staff, and families safe. What affects one family can easily transfer to others quickly. Keep us safe.”

The news from New York Time said that the new Covid is spreading. The people who got test positive could get infection again that might very dangerous.

All day with masks? Have you met children??

It is still not safe to go to phase 3 for students. Many high school students will have to quit their jobs if we do. Parents will have to change their work schedules because their high school kids would take care of the younger siblings.

Working in SPED I have seen how behind the students are who struggle anyway.

I think it would be nice to transition back to a normal schedule.

n/a

While there are less cases of COVID-19 and less spread at schools, I think that there is more that has to be considered. Students do not have the academic stamina that they have had in the past. This late in the school year, I am not convinced that yet another change in routine and schedule would have enough benefits to outweigh the cons of having to change and adjust again. At this point, I personally feel that it may benefit students and teachers alike to just wait until the next school year (or even April or May) to go back to 5 full days a week.

I responded no, and my reasonings are that it will be difficult for elementary students. This has been a difficult year for students with so many uncertainties, with constant schedule changes throughout the year. The other reason is having students wear masks for longer period of time each day. As it is, at the end of the day with the hours we have now, the students are ready to take their masks off. We have also worked hard at social distancing which meant students stilling at their desks with little group or partner work. Adding the extra hours just means students are sitting longer. I understand the need to return to “normal” but it is anything but normal right now everywhere. I see no harm in continuing the way it is now. We as teachers are working hard to ensure students are learning and growing.

N/A

I think it is too soon to go to phase 3. I feel that if we go to Phase 3, people will be less careful because they will think we are back to normal.

The district should be on the same early out or late start schedule. No middle school starting late on Monday and then Friday early out for elementary.

Start in fall.

Use a conservative wait and see approach by starting with the younger students for several weeks to collect data on the impact – positive and negative in relation to returning to Phase 3.

“The mental health of students needs to be taken into account. These transitions have not been smooth for them. They are not adjusted to the rigors, stress, and increased load of a regular school year, and they’re barely getting adjusted to Phase 2.5. I believe that pushing the students toward a full Phase 3 will see an increase in mental health issues as well as a higher number of students staying home and not getting any in person time. In addition, it is not fair to ask so much of the students academically when they are denied their normal outlets of socializing, dances, athletic/arts activities, etc. Pre-2020 life and activities have not resumed across the state nor in other schools due to state laws and restrictions, but if you’re asking students to be in class with zero social distancing and eat lunch surrounded by peers without masks on, there is no reasoning to keep them from other regular activities. Lastly, teachers have more or less ignored throughout the board meetings and decisions. IF we move into Phase 3, it should not be expected of teachers to keep up with both in person and online students. Teachers should get more voice in the decision as well as more than 2 weeks to plan and prepare.”

If we go to phase 3, I really want to be relieved of the responsibility of putting all my lessons online. I do NOT have time to do this. I love that they have Chromebooks and will still have them do lessons on them, but I hate having to put all the details of every lesson online. PLEASE make it so I do NOT have to put it online. The students DO NOT look at my online lessons even when they are out and quarantined (except honors students). I beg them to. Also, parents that have allowed their student to stay home always think their kids are doing their work online and are in shock when I tell them they haven’t turned in anything. It doesn’t work well.

“There is only a couple of months left on the school year and making changes in schedule means throwing off routines that will affect our Special education population behavior, and those students with anxiety, etc.

Also, As we keep working on integrating blended classroom, additonal planning time everyday is needed.”

“I would be more willing to go back full time if we were not required to wear masks. It is exhausting to teach all day in a mask for teachers as well as students. Communication is so severely curtailed. There needs to be PE, music and art returned to the schools as well.”

End of year testing is about to begin and then shortly after the end of the school year will be here. The students, faculty and staff have been through so many changes that to consider yet another change would not be in the best interest for all. We have all had to adjust and one more at this point is not worth it. Those adjustments have been very difficult for students and all staff. Please consider making this change at the beginning of the next school year.

My students seem fatigued by wearing a mask all day. By the end of the day I feel like I am entertaining them, instead of teaching them.

We have gone through so many schedule changes this year. To prevent teacher burn out and more changes for the students, we should finish the school year as is and restart full time next year.

There has hardly been a risk to students and teachers. Everyone is doing well. We need to go back to normal so that students can continue to make progress. Looking at the numbers, you can no longer justify keeping students in school for half days. Adding an extra hour and 45 minutes won’t drastically increase the risk of exposure.

This would be a huge mistake. This has been an extremely rough year for teachers, students, and parents. To change things yet again would be difficult, to say the least. Teachers cannot handle any more alterations this year. Testing is right around the corner, and to change things at this point would only add undue stress to every Provo District employee, most important teachers.

I’m fairly comfortable with elementary schools beginning full days again, my main concern is with the date. Just in terms of behavior and adjustment, I feel like March is already such a long month — the ‘longest’ in the year, when kids are going stir-crazy — that I’d strongly prefer to wait until after Spring Break. There were a handful of kids whose behavior declined once we added Fridays, and I’m anticipating another stretch of management issues once we have full days again.

My concern is the ability to sterilize and adequately protect myself and students. I am a district wide employee and travel to various schools. More time in the school day would actually make my job significantly easier but I think the potential risk is still too high if we transition too early.

There has been so much change and stress this year already. Students are stressed and teachers are at an unhealthy level of stress and worry. They use the two hours after school is out to prep for the next day – they are being asked to do so much with no time to prep. Another big change like this will be emotionally taxing to everyone and I don’t think the possible slight academic gain is worth it. We’re all just barely holding on as it is waiting for the end of the school year.

“Students are great at doing the schedule we tell them, but change to the schedule once it has been established is difficult. The change takes time away from precious seat time, which is proven to be a substantial factor in students education. This is especially difficult because there are still plans to have standardized tests this year. The change will take test preparation time away from the students. There will also be significant re-training time for a new lunch schedule. Will students all eat together, or will they still be eating in their classrooms to maintain social distancing regulations? This is a lot to ask teachers and administrators to adjust to in the middle of the school year with little preparation”

Things are going fine just how they are. If we move to full time, the home study students will still expect teachers to help them with their work. We won’t have any time to focus on them fully because our work time will be taken away. Staying in Phase 2 til the end of the school year is the best choice.

I think this would be a very difficult adjustment for students. Going full days alongside State Testing will prove difficult to keep students engaged.

We have had a lot of changes this year. Our students need some consistency. Please let us complete the rest of this year without any more major changes.

The additional prep time (early out – Phase 2B) gives me the chance to prepare lessons that are adapted for social distancing. The lessons and activities that I have taught in the past years were geared for cooperative groups. I have had to change the way I teach and prepare differently. I have appreciated the extra time to do this.

The vaccine is not 100% immunity. This means that Covid is still a possibility. The students also do not have the vaccine, so they are still able to get it. Also, we are heading into testing time, which means that adjusting our schedules then would be really hard. So we would have the students back full time for testing? I don’t see why we would want to risk it if we’ve been fine right now. Let’s just end the year and then next year it can be back to “normal”.

I still have students not attending school due to Covid. I believe it is just too soon. I do believe in Elementary School we have found routine and balance which is so very important. The changing of routine causes children to have anxiety and is hard for them. If you look this change happens right as we are testing. Just get through this year as it is and start next year as a normal year.

The students do not have the stamina to last the entire day. Also, the mask fatigue is real and is hard on the kids to wear them all day. These kids have been through a ton in the last year and have rolled with the punches well, but enough is enough. They have gone from complete online instructions last year (if they even completed any of that) to every other day to M-Th early out to every day early out. Each time we have made a change the students have been affected by it and it takes weeks for them to get used to it. It doesn’t make sense to go full day so close to Spring break and then again so close to end of year testing and the end of year. It would just be hard on everybody. We should start fresh next year.

There has been a lot of stress and anxiety for the teachers, staff, and students. Going back and forth between phases is not productive. I’m being told from several on all sides that we shouldn’t have any phase changes for the rest of this school year. The teachers are already being over worked, and doing more than they get paid for. At this point in time expecting them to go back to full time and then continue online too. You are asking way too much of them and their time. You are asking for failure and health consequences. At some point if you put too much weight on a twig, it will eventually break. Please don’t completely go off what parents say, most of them have no idea what is involved and what it takes to teach their kids. Thank you for listening.

My class has had the most positive cases in my school. My students have had to participate in a number of quarantines but I think having the kids back to a regular schedule would help them academically as well as socially. With all the cases I’ve been exposed to, I don’t think a shorter schedule made any difference. If we are able to have a full day of learning, everyone would benefit a lot.

We just started making strides with our schedules. Please do not mess them up.

“I am also fine staying at the current early out schedule until the end of the year, but I would be better able to teach more curriculum if I had the longer days. Also, I would hope the teachers would be allowed to stay in the schools longer than 4:00 to complete prep work with the extended days!”

I got Covid from school and gave it to at least 4 students at school. I don’t know who they passed it onto at home, and I am not vaccinated since I was told to wait 90 days. We need just a little more time to get vaccines working.

Transitioning to phase 3, especially during the traditionally most stressful time of the year under normal circumstances, seems unwise. District employees have already worked in 3 different phases, along with their associated idiosyncrasies (e.g., different lunch, bell, and master schedules and different levels of in-person and remote instruction), and people seem exhausted to me. I know I am. The thought of changing everything that would need to be changed to accommodate a move to phase 3 in March, the worst month of the school year and right before spring break, overwhelms me. I worry that this final shift will also send the message that things have returned to normal, but clearly they haven’t. The mask mandate is still in place, along with the directive to practice social distancing and avoid mass gatherings. It feels like all we’re really bringing back is everything hard about school and nothing enjoyable. I worry that this dynamic will lead to increased resentment and frustration and a negative experience for many students, faculty, and staff. Please just leave us in our current phase through the end of this year. Things are more than difficult enough already.

In the middle of state testing is NOT a good time to mess with student’s routines. If they are all the sudden asked to remain at school for an extra 2 hours AND are doing state tests, students will struggle.

I think that having high school students being there full time, requiring a lunch period to be had, would increase the number of students without masks being worn, and people wanting to congregate with their friends, causing dense pockets of germy high schoolers which would increase the amount of cases signifigantly

The students and their families are still dealing with pandemic issues. We should wait to go back to Phase 3 next year when we no longer need to wear masks or keep distance.

We have had constant change this school year. What we are doing is working and I worry that everyone will go on spring break and we will have a break out. The students and teachers need something consistent. I would hope to finish out the school year in phase 2.5. It allows time for teachers to prepare for home study students.

There have been a lot of changes for students and each time we open up things a little a lot of classes have to go into quarantine or even go back to online learning. I think we should breathe for the rest of the year. Let kids and faculty have this phase 2.5 as their normalcy because we’ll barely be use to it when everything changes again. Then next school year go to phase 3 from the beginning. This yo-yo-ing of phases and times and everything is not good for mental health or for developing productive schedules.

With caution.

I support this so long as all specialty classes return to normal so as to provide teachers time to plan.

The kids need to be back at school!!!

We are still in the midst of the pandemic and just because the data doesn’t show that it affects the children, it does. There is an article from the CDC that says it isn’t a good idea.

I am worried about the virus coming back stronger than before. I hear that there are stronger strains of the virus as close as California, and since a great deal of the Utah and California residents travel back and forth between the two states, it is very possible that the virus in its stronger form could end up here. With filled schools, it could spread faster. But I don’t watch the news often, so I’m not an expert.

I do not think that school should be full-time. The students have experienced enough change and are struggling to function with the 5 day half-time schedule. Parents and students also have the expectation that school is “online”. I have had so many students leave on vacation for weeks or months and their parents think its okay because they can do school online while they are gone. You cannot change that expectation in the middle of a year. You already took away teachers Friday’s to prepare online content. Please do not take away our afternoons. It is too much to transition at this point. The year is almost over. Please leave any more changes until next year.

It’s too hard for parents to keep re-adjusting their schedules and it would be hard for the kids to wear masks all day long. We should just leave the schedules the same until the end of the school year.

I feel things should be left alone for the remainder of the year. If is extremely hard for kids right now to be wearing masks for as long as they already do. I feel wearing for 2 more hours will be extremely difficult for them and also difficult to enforce. I also feel the parents should still not be allowed in the buildings so that we continue to keep our covid numbers at a minimal.

The school schedule adjustments that would be necessary on a Secondary level would be difficult for just 6 weeks left of the school year.

The students have had so much change this year. I think finishing out the year with Phase 2.5 will provide consistency in a constantly changing year.

“I’m willing to support staying with phase 2.5 or phase 3.0. The only concern I have is lunchtime. If students are allowed to go outside to eat as well as the cafeteria then I really don’t see a problem. In the past there are students sitting outside between the wings and in front of the cafeteria. If not there will be a lot of students without masks and we may see the numbers continue to climb.

What if we compromise and increase the class time to 90 minutes and end the school day at 1:45 with lunches the way they are in phase 2, pick up and go. Often times students leave to go off campus during lunch and don’t return.”

My only concern is how lunch would work at the high school. I think longer days will not impact covid any differently than now. However, lunch is a concern.

Just please give us enough time to plan. Two weeks notice minimum would be greatly appreciated.

I would be even more supportive if additional emphasis were to be placed on the proper usage of masks by ALL students in the district as well as further encouragement/requirement of students to rapidly transition between classes and not congregate in the halls with leveled consequences being put into effect for those who violate such safety protocols.

We are overwhelmed this year with the amount of work we have to do as teachers with Canvas and Home Study Students. I spend at least twice as much time in lesson planning, grading, and putting things on Canvas. As we lose more time to plan, grade, and do all of the many things we have to do we are nearing the breaking point. I spend countless hours at home on weekends and nights trying to stay caught up with everything I have to do. In addition to grading, which takes much more time on Canvas I am having to send out weekly emails to students and parents to keep them informed (especially those that are Home Study), I have to spend hours putting up assignments on Canvas that must include intro. videos, answer keys, demo videos, assignments, instructions, etc. so that all our Home Study students and those missing school due to COVID issues can keep up. We no longer have Fridays to PLC with our teams and do Professional Development (which I guess we also need to do at home now), and it does not matter if we have one home study student or 100 we have to do it ALL! It has also been difficult for the teachers to have to change our lesson plans and schedule as we continue transitioning to different times and schedules. I am barely able to do it all now and don’t know how I can keep up if more time is taken away from our already overworked schedules. It is not only about our physical health needs, it is also about our emotional health as well and we are all overwhelmed and exhausted!

“All I have heard is talk about transitioning without any talk about totally doing away with the Home Study option for students. With the current situation I barely have time to support the at home students. If we move to full time school then the home option must be completely done away with and parents need to understand that. Quarantining would have to be handled as if the student was absent and it would be on the student to get what was missed while they were gone. We as teachers continue to be told to take care of ourselves yet we are not given any consideration to do so. More continues to be asked of us and nothing gets removed. Teachers really are at a breaking point, I know teachers I never thought would retire who are talking about leaving right now. To move to full time something must be removes: the home study option must be removed.”

I think this would be very good for the students.

It looks like we have turned corner with numbers and I want to get the students back to a normal schedule for term 4 so they will be ready for a full time schedule for next school year.

Our middle school is already struggling to maintain Covid standards in Phase 2. Phase 3 would only exacerbate these issues. Parents do *not* want more instructions time – if they did, they would take advantage of the 2 HOURS PER DAY that their student’s teachers are available for one-on-one tutoring after school gets out. They do not. No matter the amount of times I tell all parents & students that I will do one-on-one tutoring after school, they do not take advantage. Parent want more babysitting time. It’s that simple.

The students have been negatively impacted academically, emotionally and socially. They have regressed in many instances despite the hard work of teachers and staff to compensate virtually. The district did an amazing job of getting chrome books out to all students and assuring they had adequate internet service in their homes.

Just wait until after summer when people have been vaccinated. I don’t see the value in 2 months of slightly more instructional time, especially given the risk.

High school students are already burned out. Increasing the time that they are in class–ESPECIALLY during fourth term–will accomplish nothing, except maybe encourage them to check out even more. When I asked them about this rumor over the past two days, they were horrified! They cannot stand the thought of spending even more time in a mask.

Although the numbers are in a low, does not mean that they will not reach a high again. On the daily, I get notifications of the rise in covid cases and hospitalizations. I just see it as, why mess with a good and consistent program? The students are already dealing with more stress than they have ever had to face, so why make them face more of it….especially while we are in the down hill slope of the school year. The District keeps saying they want consistency for the students, but yet have done nothing that is consistent.

Going Phase 3 in full force will add more to student’s in person time to catch up with academics from all the lost hours in school caused by the pandemic.

By the time we see these schedules coming out, enforcing them and then getting the parents on board we will be well past spring break. This is testing time for students. Having the students go to a full day of school after a whole year of them not being in school for a full day with testing on top of it will cause serious burnout. Because we have to do testing this year there still is not room for the students to catch up on subjects because they will be testing instead of learning new material anyways.

Not sure how another 2 hours of school time would have any negative impact on anything?

You can’t keep the students safe during lunch time. Our lunch room is OVER capacity. Social distancing would be impossible and no one would be wearing masks while they eat. Putting 1000+ kids together in a close space for 40 minutes is dangerous. CDC has indicated that social distancing is needed to safely open schools. There wouldn’t be any social distancing in this case. With the limits on the size of gatherings and people being charged for having parties smaller than 1000, how do you expect to legally open for lunch?

I know some parents are still not allowing their student to return due to class sizes and difficulty social distancing. I suggest PCSD school be flexible with these parents and as inclusive as possible in addressing their concerns.

“I think our school district has taken a cautious and thoughtful approach during the pandemic. As the number have come down, I support opening the schools.

As I work with children with severe disabilities across the district, I am not sure how a full opening would affect the timeframes that we service the children on homebound services, as we see these virtually (or when parents bring them after hours for direct services), as children and classes would be at those times with a full opening.”

So many students are failing. The students who struggle the most are the ones who are already having academic challenges. The students with great support and inherent capabilities are doing fine but those are not the kids we should be concerned with…they will do fine no matter how school looks. Please help the kids who have little to no support at home. School is their safe haven and the only hope they have for success in the future. We are here to help children, that is our job. To hide behind this being a “safety” issue is absurd. The numbers do not support this. I fear teachers (I am one so no prejudice here) have become lazy and enjoy 1/2 days and limited work in my opinion.

I believe that moving to another phase at this time with only 3 months left in the school year would not be a good move. Students and teachers are comfortable remaining in the phase we are in now and trying to make adjustments this late in the year will cause more anxiety and stress on everyone involved. It has already been an overly stressful and difficult year for everyone.

There is a huge mental toll on teachers and students wearing mask for such a long day. The lunch schedule would be especially challenging at Provo High. There is not enough space for kids to eat and they would not be able to social distance and remove their masks to eat.

We have so much learning to recover and will be positive for the mental, physical and intellectual health of the students and all the teachers and staff.

These kids need stability, these continuous changes this year is not giving them that.

The pandemic is not over and the risk is very big

Lunch is the major concern right now. PHS is not able to accommodate the COVID practices within the 2 scheduled lunch. We would need to split the lunches into 3 or 4 and having student eat lunch at 8:30?

I support full time school…as long as we (as a district) are requiring students/families that choose to stay home to be enrolled in eschool so as not to overburden our teachers in the building.

“If the decision to transition is made it might be better to wait until after spring break rather than do it on the 22nd of March. Also look at how this impacts all the staff at the schools with all they are required to do within the covid19 protocols”

It will be hard for several students to make the adjustment after almost a year with the same schedule.

its time to try and get back to normal.

With cases going lower daily all schools should go to regular hours.

I think it’s time to get all the kids back to school.

Elementary schools are perhaps the most ready given their size, structured cohorts, etc. However, secondary schools can make it happen with adjustments to their structures and schedules. We have very innovative and professional personnel at all levels.

“I donâ€™t feel comfortable leaving all the students out sick or on quarantine further behind, and there are still a lot who depend on us to provide online learning. Weâ€™re not ready to give up on them and on disinfecting the buildings everyday. Especially not for the reasons I hear we are rushing this. Prom? Really? I also disapprove of the wording of this question. â€œWilling to supportâ€ is very leading.”

Students and teachers are stressed out of their mind and ready to quit.

I don’t have an opinion about the other schools but I think elementary should go back full time.

I support this move only if you drop the â€œall teachers must be fully onlineâ€ for students in quarantine requirement. Itâ€™s too much work to do both in person classes for most and online for the very few. Either Iâ€™m teaching kids face-to-face, or Iâ€™m teaching online. I cannot do both and do them both well. You HAVE to take something off my plate if we move back to full-time. Iâ€™ll snap if you donâ€™t.

“I am concerned about the changes to our schedule and the disruption it is causing in behavior and productivity at school (Kindergarten). I recognize that phase 3 is the ideal, but we also need some sustained consistency for young students, to establish regular patterns for instruction and activity.

Every time we have made a change this year, it has felt like we were starting over, because we have had to change our schedule and the order of activities and lessons around fixed things like recess, specialties, aide time, intervention times, lunch, etc. If we switch to phase 3 on the 22nd of March, we will have 2 weeks of school before Spring Break. The students will be out of school again for a week and we will have to spend additional time establishing the routines after the break. Things have been inconsistent enough, that the students are really struggling with maintaining learning behaviors. Two weeks is not long enough to get routines established in a meaningful way. So, if we are going to move to phase 3 we should either do it right away (March 8th) or we should wait until after Spring Break. I worry that another change in our day, may disrupt things enough that it will actually decrease learning. We need to act fast or perhaps it isn’t worth doing.

My final concern is that the logistics of moving to phase 3 (supervision, school-wide scheduling, staffing, meetings after school) will require more from teachers, because schools are not ready to provide the support.”

Many precautions should be in place as long as needed until pandemic is under control. The safety of our students and staff should come first before considering taken any further actions.

The school board should be more cautious of allowing schools to go back into full time. It is not ready at this time to go fully in person until vaccinations are required for anyone. I am against moving into phase three due to carelessness with students and parents regarding mask precautions.

Let’s move to full-time!

Students, parents, and teachers have had so many changes in scheduling since a year ago, March 2020. Masks are laborious to wear already for the school day, early release, so to have them wear masks for 2 more hours a day seems daunting. Students and teachers have been finally able to set a routine that works, and students are able to do the work that has been assigned them. Teachers and students have had to learn a very steep curve learning how online teaching and learning works, and with Canvas. With End of Year RISE testing happening next month and preparing for that test, along with classroom tests and assessments needing to be given, it appears the students will feel more stressed and overwhelmed with more changes occurring if Phase 3 were to take place this school year. There would be decrease in students attending school, less work done in class and on line. As a teacher, I feel a burn out among teachers already, and so much added pressure on us to the point of breaking down. TEACHERS by far are the experts in understanding and physically seeing what the students are going through. It is a very huge stress for both student and teacher. I believe the best thing for now is to leave school as is even until the end of the school year in May. Thank you for listening (hoping someone did read this and took it into consideration, really). Teachers are the ones that should be heard since we are with the students more hours in the day than anyone else. We have seen and know them

I think this is risk worth taking–the kids need to be in school more.

Teachers are already swamped trying to make things work and run smoothly. Removing their time after school would be harmful to the staff and the students. The students are tired and stressed from the constant schedule changes. Please leave it how it is until the end of the year.

I don’t think it is wise to move to phase 3 at this point in the year. Yes, I would love to have my students all day, every day because I feel like I don’t have enough time to teach all the things I need to teach. On the other hand, phase 3 still requires students to be sitting most of the day, not interacting like they do in a normal year with masks on. They won’t be allowed to eat snacks and they would have more time in the day to worry about the risk of Covid. On top of that, this is being introduced in the Spring. Students are already getting stir crazy. This time of the year students don’t want to be in the classroom; they want to be outside. That is something teachers are prepared to handle in a normal year where students have been used to the conditions of normal school hours. Adding two more hours is going to wear both students and teachers out. It isn’t going to benefit anyone this year. Testing begins just a few weeks after this time so it really doesn’t help prepare students for testing either. It will give teachers two more hours to teach and review for next year and that is the one good thing. It seems like a move to phase 3 is more motivated by placating disgruntled parents than truly helping students. Lastly, I feel like if this move is made that teachers will leave due to burnout from the unneeded stresses this will place on them.

Give option for special education students to do modified full/half day or just half day.

As a seasoned High School teacher I know that when the weather gets warmer the kids get wilder. Right now they have a routine that is predictable and is keeping our case numbers down. Maintaining our current safety protocols and learning expectations will be difficult enough with the end of the year activities and testing approaching. We cannot navigate another phase change. We already have clusters of students gathering in maskless groups after school. Going to phase 3 will give the false impression that everything is “back to normal” adding more work to already overwhelmed teacher, staff, and admin team. Wait until next school year.

While I understand the desire to have students receive more knowledge by being in school full-time I have some concerns. First my students are exhausted by 1:20 when they are released to go home right now. The stresses related to COVID are taking a larger toll on students and teachers physically, mentally and emotionally more than we will ever truly understand. Second, I have students who are hungry by 1:20 even though we have had a snack during the day, school lunch and a snack that is sent home with students at 1:20. I worry about the students ability to see past hunger in order to make it two more hours without eating the second snack, that is sent home with them and be engaged in schooling. Third, students are currently trying their best academically to retain everything that we are offering as educators. I worry about keeping them in the classroom and their ability to continue to retain the firehose of information we spray at them. Will the extra 80ish hours of school added at the end of a tumultuous year truly make a positive change? Or will it upheave the regular schedule and procedures and create more conflict canceling the purpose of full time school? Every time we have had a phase change it has been challenging for students and teachers to adapt. Students need some sort of consistency in their lives this year. In general high schoolers are better able to regulate and understand their feelings, hunger, and attention and may be better at coping. Thanks!

As a custodial employee at provo peaks, we are already overwhelmed with doing our regular cleaning and disinfecting all the classrooms and others areas like the library, gym and teachers lounge. As the son of a teacher, my mother is already working overtime to teach lessons online and in person. Going back to full time school would overwhelm not only my mom, but all the teachers. Please do not proceed to phase 3.

Teachers are burned out. We have had so many changes this year as is and it’s hard to make another change with not a lot of time left in the year, especially as testing comes up. My students and I have just gotten used to the full week schedule, with students still missing days. I fear that if we go to the full-schedule just as we are gearing up for RISE testing, the students will become overwhelmed and distressed. Not only students, but teachers as well. We’ve had to make so many different plans this year and change things around that it’s hard to grasp another change. Our schedule wouldn’t just add an additional two hours to the day, but it would rearrange our entire schedule. We wouldn’t have our designated planning periods. In years past, I’ve always been running around during the lunch time because I had to put fires out with my students having issues at lunch or recess. Would teachers still have to watch their students during the lunch and recess time? We don’t have enough support staff to watch every classroom at lunch. We also don’t have the capacity to safely have all of the students eat at lunch together if we were to put everyone in the cafeteria. Keep the schedule as is and let us finish the year out strong with where we are. Please, put us back on the full-day schedule NEXT YEAR. We don’t need to add anymore stress by adding more change to the staff and students. We are all creatures of habit, but we can’t create healthy habits if everything keeps changing.

We should finish this school year out and start the new school year in full.

Itâ€™s already stressing enough to go to school during a pandemic itâ€™s going to be more harder to go to phase 3 when high schoolers have to go to jobs and help there families through this time.

I strongly oppose Provo City School district schools transitioning to a full time schedule. I am a janitor at Provo Peaks, and the pandemic has put a lot more work on my team’s plate. It had mostly been okay because the original schedule where only half of students attended each day, with none on Fridays, and early release everyday allowed us to come into work earlier and we had some of our original jobs lessened because of less students in the school so we were able to complete everything. Then we had all students M-Th, and it got a little harder. Then students were coming on Fridays and it got even harder. This was especially difficult because jobs we didn’t have time to do in the week due to our added load of disinfecting and COVID related cleaning were able to get done on Fridays, since we didn’t have to do normal daily cleaning without students. If all schools transitioned to full time then it would make our job even more difficult. Since all of the after school custodians at Provo Peaks (as well as most district part time custodians) are also PCSD high school students this would throw an even bigger wrench in our schedule. If we all are released from school later and not allowed to come into work until later, then we will have to be working much later into the evening, which, in turn, gives us much less time to complete our homework and other daily necessities. The pandemic, for various reasons, has given us enough stress. We don’t need more.

The students need more time in school in order to have their academic needs met. The time teachers have to prepare in the school buildings right now is extremely limited. If students came back full time, they would need lessons and materials that are prepared, so the teachers need more time to stay in the buildings. Leaving at 4 and not being able to come in on weekends has made it very hard to get everything done that needs to be done, so extending teacher’s time in the buildings would be necessary.

It seems like it would be an easier transition following Spring Break and not the week before. By the time my students get adjusted to the schedule, we will be gone for a week. If we return to full days, I would prefer to see it happen the week we come back from break.

Students need to be in school and learning in the classroom setting if it is possible.

The kids have had so many changes already, one more would add more pressure to perform. Also wearing the mask for such a long time, becomes overwhelming for them and for us teachers.

“I think students attending secondary schools, with so many rigorous academic classes, would greatly benefit from attending school in person full time as outlined in Phase 3. I hear over and over from teenagers how much harder it is to learn online. I am concerned about students being prepared for college.

I think elementary students should continue doing Phase 2.5 — attending school five days a week, but continuing early outs each day. As a first grade teacher, it has been extremely challenging to do social distancing and sanitizing with young children. We go to lunch at 10:40 in order to social distance in the lunchroom. First graders will be starving by the end of school at 3:20. I think we need to look at the physical needs of children in addition to their academic needs.”

No I prefer to make this transition next fall .

“This has been a very difficult year for students, parents, and school staff. There are definitely both pros and cons for moving to full day.

Pros – Students need to be in school to learn, student safety, getting into a routine, teachers will have more time with students

Cons – Student and Teacher stamina; mask fatigue; increased discipline do to teacher and student fatigue (discipline has increased dramatically in the last 4 weeks); admin having to work out the logistic of creating another master schedule; teacher stress is extremely high and struggling with personal well-being; When will teachers manage Canvas and online students?; March is the hardest month for students and teachers; due to social distancing, students cannot participate in fun activities (assemblies, sporting events, dances, etc.)

I believe that moving to phase 3 in March is going to add additional stress and fatigue to school staff and students. Change is hard for everyone and this year especially. Making a change with 8 weeks left in school doesn’t feel like to correct move. I believe the correct decision is to hold the current course and move back to full day starting next school year.”

I want things back to normal and no masks! Also, Iâ€™d like to know if we really are getting the teacher bonus that Cox promised.

Switching to a Phase 3 schedule right now would most certainly create more work for teachers, with less time to do it. Because of this, I strongly believe that if we move to Phase 3, teachers should be able to implement their own late work policies (as they normally would, since we are returning to a normal schedule) to help both with their own work and mental health and to help encourage students to stay engaged and on top of their school work. If moved back into full Phase 3, there also should be no students on permanent Home Study (which is still happening right now). Any students doing that need to either move back to the in-person classroom or join e-school. Of course, if students are quarantined due to exposure or illness, that is still somewhat different, but if we are returning to a “normal” schedule, then all things should return to normal unless they are explicitly for students’ physical health and safety. I also strongly believe that if students are moved to a full school day that lunch time should still be structured very differently than it currently is to help keep our numbers down among students. All this being said, the advantage of having more instructional time with students is the one reason that I would feel okay with moving to a full Phase 3 schedule.

I have two reasons for choosing NO. The mask mandate is too much for a full day of school. It’s barely tolerable for a partial day of instruction, and will be entirely INTOLERABLE for a full day, for staff and students alike. Also, unless large scale school activities, field trips, traditional celebrations, and a full-time music program for band and orchestra be reinstated, then a full day will be cumbersome and overwhelming. Those activities break up the length of the day and provide variety. If we are to go to Phase 3, then Normal should be reinstated. Otherwise, stay where we are.

As a teacher of a younger group of kids, I think it could be detrimental to their health and well being to have to be in their mask for more hours each day. We would probably use the extra time given for mask breaks vs. more teaching time. They have done very well for the hours they are required to wear the masks currently. I encourage you to keep the early out schedule as is. I also might have a hard time having to wear my mask for more hours per day. I very much look forward to 1:45 p.m. when I can sit in my class by myself and work without a mask. For our general health; mental and physical, I would vote for keeping the early out schedule. It’s working well. Good teaching is happening now. We are using our time wisely. The students are progressing. The cover counts are on a downward slope. Why tempt it?

I would support transitioning to full time school WITHOUT mask and social distance restrictions. However, please DO NOT send elementary students back for full days wearing masks, and with strict social distance guidelines-shields, no group or partner work, no switching classes for intervention groups, etc. For young students, enforcing appropriate mask use is extremely difficult. Students do not wear clean masks, they constantly wear them inappropriately, and they lose them constantly. It creates a barrier which seems to have increased student emotional difficulties and behavioral incidents. I spend most of my class time reminding students to keep masks on and to social distance. We can’t hear each other. I am constantly straining my voice to be heard, and losing my breath-especially when modeling reading. Students seem to be much more disengaged in masks and class discussions are less useful because we can’t hear each other. At the end of the shortened day, from wearing a mask, I have a headache, my stomach hurts, my eyes are dry and strained, my throat hurts, and I feel extremely tired and mentally foggy. After breathing freely for almost an hour, I feel better physically, but I am emotionally and mentally drained. The thought of extending teaching in a mask for nearly 2 more hours is terrifying and discouraging to say the least. For elementary teachers health and mental well-being, PLEASE, PLEASE do not send students to school full time WITH MASK REQUIREMENTS in place.

I think it would be good to do this.

We are all injected or had it or both. Letâ€™s do this.

This year has been a constantly changing schedule for students, and due to the fact that our students are still children this has caused them to react poorly. Consistency is key for developing minds. On top of this inconsistent schedule and school days, the surrounding COVID situation has been anything but positive for our students. Being forced into quarantine, forbidden from seeing friends at home or school, being told that they will get sick and possibly die if they catch the virus, all these have serious detrimental effects. My students have expressed a lot of dismay at the whole situation, while I know of other students both in and out of the district that have had their respective anxieties and depression escalate to dangerous levels, including thoughts and actions of self-harm. We’ve been in the current schedule rotation for just as long as we were in Phase 1, and it was a hard enough shift from Phase 1 to the current phase for the students. There are only a couple months left in school, so keep it the same as it is now for high school students and allow them to focus on the tasks they have acclimated to now.

I would support transitioning to phase 3 in all schools after Spring Break.

“I have emailed Teri my concerns but basically here are some of them. I work in the behavior units at Amelia Earhart. In our classes our students are barely making it through the day as it is. Going from Phase one to Phase two was a huge step. Making the move to Phase three ,I feel, would but teachers, aides, and students over the edge. Trying to teach, handle the behaviors, while continuing to get new students, which upsets the already stressed classroom. It is hard for anyone to understand who does not spend their days in such a classroom. The students are tired of wearing the masks on top of everything else. Getting them to keep a mask on complicates the day even more. We are trying to get the students through the rest of the school year as successfully as we can.

I sympathize with parents who want their children in school all day. However this year has tested everyone to the point of breaking. We want to do right by our students, but asking them to do more at this time, I believe would do more harm than good.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Michelle Perez”

As someone who has been lucky enough to work in my own office away from students, I have seen that the changes made benefit no one. Not the students nor the teachers. It seems like this is being done because groups of privileged parents with children who canâ€™t seem to adhere to mandates and changes are having mental breakdowns and itâ€™s all a big tantrum. It does more damage to more people constantly making these pointless changes. Educators and the students end up losing more than what they gain.

“As an elementary school teacher, the current Phase 2 schedule is the one that should stay. It is hard enough for young students to wear a mask all day and social distance, which is taxing on teachers to continually police. To have students and teachers change their schedules YET AGAIN, is not considerate to the families and faculty involved. We teachers have been at the mercy of the school boardâ€™s decisions this year and feel that our needs have NOT BEEN HEARD NOR CONSIDERED! We are burned out!!! Stop making us do more! It is incredible how we feel we have no say in the school boardâ€™s decision which directly affect our lives and mental health! We have had to change our routines too many times so far this school year. Please let us relax and keep school as it is! What is your rush?! Please keep Phase 2 going until the end of the school year we have a good schedule now, exposure to all illnesses are at a low because we are following Covid-19 protocol, but that doesnâ€™t mean we want our school days extended and keep those protocols in place. I would invite school board members to visit our classrooms and see the challenges we deal with each day during this pandemic. Letâ€™s allow this disease to blow over and start anew in the next school year. You are burning out your elementary school teachers!! We are barely making it mentally, physically, and emotionally. Do not move to Phase 3 please!”

“As a teacher, teaching until 1:20 this year has been exhausting, I can’t imagine how tiring it will be to teach until 3:00 pm. I also think it will be a rough transition for the students. We’ll definitely need more breaks. However, I think it will be beneficial for students and all of us to move one step closer to normalcy. Kids need less screen time and more face-to-face connection time.

My own elementary-aged children have been on their own at home for 2 hours after the early out dismissal because even though my spouse is working from home, he has the door to his office shut and is oblivious to what they are doing. My older children have had to step in to parent roles to help watch their younger siblings. When we return to a full day, my children will only be at home for about a half-hour before me.”

There has already been enough changes and adjustments to the schedule.

going to phase 3 makes many people feel this is an “all clear” for no longer being careful! Very dangerous! Also, the students are already stressed out enough without giving them ANOTHER schedule change for 4th term.

The monthly trend of Covid cases have been going down. The weekly trends in all schools have been very low.

It would be nice to have my students the full day. My worry is how it will affect the time I have in the building outside of class time. If we have to leave at 4:00, that only gives me about a half an hour. That’s just not enough time. If we go to full day, we need to be allowed to stay later. And, it would really help to be allowed to work in the building on Saturdays. As a working mother, I get my best planning and preparation done at school on Saturdays when there are no distractions from family or coworkers.

Teachers need additional time to be in the building to prepare and plan if this transition is made. The current time limits for the buildings will not provide sufficient time to create quality instruction for students.

N/A

My feeling are we are doing good now. But as someone who just lost a 24 year old nephew to covid, I feel part of the reason we are doing good is because people are still being cautious. Switch this and everything will follow in quick succession. Finish the school year this way, start full next year.

The school schedule this year has been constantly changing and teachers have had to adjust every time with little support. This would be the greatest change yet, and would be happening with only a few months left of school. I donâ€™t understand what the point of it is, and is extremely unfair to teachers after they have had to change their schedule over and over again already. It seems as though the effort it takes for teachers to adjust the entire day when the school scheduled is changed is completely taken for granted.

It is still not safe for students to go back full time. I have been told students are being sent to school sick, teachers have been going in sick as well. And some students are NOT wearing mask while in school, and are not being told to put them on by staff. Having them go in full time is just ridiculous and putting our students at risk. Numbers are still high in Utah County and deaths are still being counted daily. With Spring break around the corner numbers will just go up again. Meaning that there could be an outbreak at schools. Please consider holding off Phase 3 for the safety of our kids.

I’m fine either way. Today I asked my students if they would like to go to phase 3 and they were very adamant that they DON’T want to do it. FIrst, there have been way too many changes this year and they’re overwhelmed. Second, they feel like they’re getting a lot of homework already and worry that if they spend more time in school they’ll still have the same amount of homework and will be overwhelmed. Third, some of them have work schedules that would need to be changed yet again.

“When we go to full-time school, teachers will need more time to be able to prep. Will teachers be allowed to stay after 4pm?

Also, I don’t have an informed opinion for high schools and middle schools. There should be a N/A option for each category, so that you can get more valid data.”

I’m concerned because of the current cleaning and sanitizing schedule.

Teachers are burnt out! This might kill them off. Now, at the end of the year when people are tired after a really hard year, is not the time to make another change just for the sake of it.

Itâ€™s already hard having to deal with so many other students in the halls and the pandemic still going on. Many of us are working and are finding a hard time balancing both worlds as the schedule changes it would be more than optimal for us to go back to Phase 3 until next year.

“I believe that wearing masks for that amount of time will be extremely exhausting for teachers and students. One way I would support this decision is if we were mask-free, teachers and students alike. And yet, for that it is too early. So adding another hour and forty minutes every day to the lack of good air circulation to our brains and entire body caused by wearing a mask, will negatively affect all of us. Many of us get headaches and sometimes dizziness from wearing masks while we teach. Adding more time to that multiplies the stress on our bodies, the mask fatigue, and potential damage to our body and mind. That is only addressing the time that kids are in school. After that, there’s prep time that will require many additional hours after teaching under such extreme circumstances. Efficiency is diminished by fatigue. Another concern I have is that we have been “”run through the mill”” with all that we have done to get our students caught up, teach online, go through transition after transition, demand after demand. To ask us to go full-time at the very end of the year after such a physically and emotionally exhausting year, seems negligent of the impact on educators, administrators, staff, and personnel. Our students deserve to keep the status quo instead of having to deal with another change. They have felt the pressure of trying to get caught up and don’t deserve additional pressures at the end of the year, when they’re exhausted too.”

I feel like we need to take the rest of the year to complete the process of developing online blended learning modules for all the curriculum. Next year then becomes an opportunity to fine-tune the activities that have been created. Even if we go back to â€œnormal, it will not be normal. This change would be hard on teachers and students who are just now adapting to all the changes that have already occurred. My support of elementary schools going full time is on condition that it is what elementary teachers and parents want.

We need to stay in the phase that we are in. The kids still need the extra time out of class to catch up from phase 1 and teachers need the extra prep time to prepare a digital lesson and face to face lesson.

This is insanity! The students have had to endure enough change throughout the year. The safety committee needs to keep the students in mind. ALL of my students want some kind of consistency. They have just gotten used to the current schedule we are in and now the board and safety committee in all their “wisdom” want to throw another change at the students, let alone another change at the teachers. This will require yet another adjustment to planning and preparing on the teachers part. I cannot express enough how opposed I am to this change. Keep us in the current 2.5 til the school year ends!!! Make a decision based on the well being of the students and their mental health for once this year!!

I personally feel we have all (teachers, parents and students) adjusted so many times this year that one more change coming at almost the end of the school year is just ridiculous. Everyone has adjusted so far why add on ANOTHER change, plus having to wear a mask an extra hour a day is something I think most of us will not be excited about. Let’s just get through this year and start fresh come fall.

I feel that we should wait a little longer to see if anything changes now that more people are getting the vaccine.

“It would be unfair of me to vote for other school levels for which I am not part, bust since I had to vote to move on to the next question, but I think those votes shouldn’t count.

The feedback I am hearing from teachers at the high school is that they are very much opposed to another schedule change and would like to remain on the current 2.5. Thank you.”

“As a secondary teacher who works with predominantly at-risk (ELL, Special Ed, low-income, LGBTQ+) students, I am very opposed to moving to Phase three for the following reasons:

1. Our students desperately need consistency. And we’re just now getting used to Phase 2.5. Consistency is directly linked to my students mental health and academic success. I have seen and they have expressed to me that each face change has negatively affected both.

2. Moving to Phase 3 will put our already at-risk population more at risk for falling behind (low attendance, low SES students helping at home more, mental health etc.)

3. Teachers still need to have a strong online presence for Quarantined students and Phase three takes most of our online prep time. With the minimized prep time, I am barely able to keep up with my regular planning and continuing my Canvas. And during Phase 3, keeping my canvas up to date will need to continue due to quarantined students. Your teachers are burnt out and Phase 3 would push many of them to a breaking point, including myself.

4. It’s unsafe to have secondary students eat lunch at school. There are simply too many of them to eat safely. And some of the alternatives to a regular lunch schedule put extra weight on teachers. We need to keep our numbers down and continue to support teachers’ mental health.”

I feel like we have had enough changes to schedules and routines this year. It makes it hard on everyone involved. I voter we stay as we are for the remainder of this year. Students I have talked to want to keep things as they are right now. Honestly, it feels like the decision is already made so this survey feels like a token courtesy rather than an honest effort at hearing what we really think/feel.

Teachers are still working overtime to provide work for students in class and students online. They need time to prepare! High schools should remain in the phase they are in now for the remainder of the year. It’s hard on the teachers to keep switching back and forth! Numbers of cases may be going down, but it is very possible that that is only the case because those living in Utah County are refusing to get tested. I know a lot of people who refused when they very well could have tested positive.

Teachers need some time to also prepare for this change. It would cause too many problems with parents who have to change schedules for babysitters etc. Kids have a hard time staying with their face mask longer hours.

Stay phase 2.5 till next year

The roller coaster ride for students and teachers with changing schedules has been astronomical this year. I would prefer we make a firm decision to keep the schedule as-is for the remainder of the year with no further discussion occurring. Additionally, the teacher fatigue is even more extreme than ever before. It requires a herculean effort to teach with a mask on all day.

The district has done a great job of keeping our schools safe and protected, there does not seem to be transmission in the schools. Our students need more time in school for so many reasons and teachers want the students here also.

All

We have changed so many times this year, we cannot do it again. For the kids and teachers’ sakes. It has been too much and we are burned out. Leave it this year as it is working well.

“I do NOT support the Phase 3 move. As if quarantine in itself hasnâ€™t been enough trauma on children K-12, the frequent phase changes by PCSD are making an already stressful situation worse. Once the children settle into a phase, and find stability that they so desperately need, PCSD rips it away from them. Children need stability and to know that the rug wonâ€™t be pulled out from under them every few weeks.Â Â For almost all students, going to school is a comfortable constant, even if they might be struggling with other issues in their life, says Adiaha Spinks-Franklin, professor of developmental pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. As a result, the schedule of attending school and classes helps create a feeling of stability for students that can be difficult to lose when schools close down. â€œOn the cognitive level, they may get it,â€ Spinks-Franklin says. â€œBut on the emotional level, itâ€™s so hard for them because theyâ€™re no longer in their normal routine.â€ Â PCSD moved the secondary schools into Phase 2.5 on February 1st and since then the students have fallen into a stable rhythm. We need to stay in phase 2.5 until the end of the 2020-2021 school year. There are only 2 Â½ months of school left and these are the most stressful and busy months of the school year. We need less change, and more districts they can rely on to keep their education constant. PSCD is making decisions based on what makes THEM the most money instead of thinking of children welfare.”

I donâ€™t think changing to Phase 3 would be wise. Covid-19 is still a thing. And having children Eating lunch and spending more time together wouldnâ€™t be a wise decision.

I think it seems too fast to be pushing this, especially with school wrapping up soon.

“I am for the change to switch to full day. I teach first grade and any change for kids at that age is a big deal. But I’m more concerned with the students mask stamina and stamina for learning especially so soon after day light savings. March is such a great time for learning, one of the reasons being that there are no breaks or changes. I’m afraid a change like that in first grade will through the students off. I’d be more comfortable going to full day after spring break.”

I think all the schools would benefit from this, but especially the elementary schools where it can be hard to feel like we are getting everything done in a day and include the important things like recess and lunch and specialties. A full day would also immensely help the special education classrooms as there is a lot more to do for care and health of the students in those classes so there would be more time for academics in the afternoon.

As a high school teacher, this extra prep time has been invaluable. I still have student who get COVID and are out. I feel required to continue to post all my lessons online for them. Taking away the extra prep time will affect my family because I will have to use my time with family to plan my online lessons.

“This is ridiculous. We don’t need to jerk kids around anymore. An extra 10 minutes per class for one term is not going to help their learning much but the disruption in the schedule will have a significant negative effect. We need to just stay on this schedule for the rest of the year. Quit making dumb decisions based on a few vocal parents wanting to pretend things are “”normal””. We use the after school time right now to help kids who are behind. Going back full time would mess this up. A full time schedule will also cause a lot of problems with lunch and social distancing.”

I would like to finish the school year in phase 2.5. This year has been stressful enough without more changes to keep track of. These kids are weary from this year in general. Returning to full day school right before testing will not be effective. Resume full day schedule next school year.

I appreciate the use of data to make decisions – good job to the Board/District for using data. I think though that there is some data that is not being collected/considered. If you were to visit our classrooms, you would see the students/teachers working hard through these difficult times. It has been very exhausting to the students/teacher to work under these conditions. We also hear about mask fatigue – that is a real thing. We hear from scientists that masks are not affecting our oxygen intake, but really it is the body’s natural response to react differently when there is an obstacle covering our mouth – we shallow breathe â€“ this is exhausting. Further, if we were to go to full-time, the need for homework would not disappear. For example, you might think that being in school longer would make the need for math review for homework unnecessary. But, there is strong research that says learning math for longer stints of time (all in the same block of time) is not efficient in terms of learning. Taking a break and picking it up later at home with the proper help (I do math club every day for every child who wants to attend) is a much better way of helping learning “stick”. I can’t imagine us going to 3:20, and then kids picking up homework after traveling home/getting a snack, and then working on that critical work until 5:30 or so. There is so much more to consider than the number of cases of COVID. Please consider the social emotional data as well in your decision.Thank You

Iâ€™m really concerned about behavior in the elemafnry schools. Students are used to this schedule now and weâ€™ve seen way less behavior problems than in the past because of the shorter days. Iâ€™m really concerned that with the time of year and the nicer weather, behavior problems will increase and some students may stay at home instead of coming to school. Iâ€™m worried the day will become longer but the effectiveness of education will decrease.

There are still students on permanent home study in Secondary. Until these students are moved entirely to eschool this would be an extra burden many teachers would be unable to keep up with.

The pandemic is not over. Why are still putting both students, teachers and other personnel at risk.

Itâ€™s not a wise decision to move to full day this school year because these kids have been through enough change. Teachers can work with the schedule we have now until the end of the year then start back up with full day next year. If we go to full day, we will lose all the motivation from the kids and it will make teaching even harder to do, even though it will give us more time.

I would like to show up to work in day light and leave work in day light. Also kids are having lots of emotional stress just by going to school during a pandemic. I think we should hold off to help kids with the stress they are already dealing with.

“We have a new testing coordinator at our school, so it may be a little different this year, but typically we start our end of year testing the first week after spring break. Changing to Phase 3 would cause more disruption, student fatigue, and increase student negativity toward testing, which is not helpful at all when it comes to school and classroom performance. Elementary students struggle to adapt to routine changes, and shifting to Phase 3 would be a major disruptive change for them. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, do not make these changes right before testing begins.

In addition, I have significant concerns about student and teacher burnout if we transition to Phase 3 at this time. I already have some parents who have told me they think the 5 days a week until 1:40 is too much time for their students to be in class wearing a mask. Teachers have been experiencing extremely high levels of stress this year, and that has just started to become more manageable when the online teaching expectations were reduced. Changing to Phase 3 at this time would only escalate teacher stress levels again.

The logistical parameters of trying to arrange secondary lunch schedules according to social distancing guidelines, effectively disinfecting school buildings with the increased usage, and staff being able to complete their work and still exit the building by 4 pm would be major obstacles.

Please allow us to stay on our current schedule for the remainder of the school year.”

“Why are we pushing to move forward? Who will benefit from this transition? How can we still be safe? These are questions I have been asking the entire school year.

Before we move forward we need to reflect on what have we learned from this school year, and we should let our reflections and evidence drive our decisions.

The biggest take aways I have from the past year are students CAN learn, but they donâ€™t know HOW to learn independently and teachers need more prep time within their contract hours. We have been given an opportunity to rethink how students are educated. What should we keep from this school year going forward?

I realize my thoughts are probably completely different from everyone else. I figured my opinions on phase 3 have already been expressed by my wonderful peers. So I am challenging whoever reads this to think beyond this school year.

Thank you for taking the time to put together this survey! Thank you for gathering data from lots of sources!”

I have conflicting feelings about it. If we resume a normal day I would need an extra recess and specialties to be able to plan and respond to intervention. Also, when would I meet with my homebound student, attend all meetings, and plan. This is my first time teaching in 6 years that I am not working every night past 5 or 6 pm. The extra time has allowed me to work (mostly) within my contract hours and complete my tasks at hand. A lot of my students are already burned out because like us they are also dealing with the stress and burn out of living through a global pandemic. I think this year we would be better to continue as we have in order to help everyone mental health.

“We are still not out of the woods with COVID. Today warnings came from the CDC not to ease up on restrictions due to many factors, including the fact that the majority of the population is still not vaccinated, we don’t fully understand how vaccinated people can transmit the virus, and because there are new variants of the virus that are proving highly transmissible. Students have already had to adjust to multiple highly impactful schedule and routine changes this year. Another change of routine for the very last term will be extremely hard on the mental health of teachers, staff, and students. This will be especially felt in special ed classrooms, which are already deeply struggling with the emotional and physical results of so many routine changes.”

The teachers, parents, and students need consistency. This year has been very inconsistent. Teachers are JUST now getting adjusted to the Phase 2 schedule, changing it with less than 3 months left in the school year is unfair to everyone.

“We need to stop rushing ahead and remember our students and employees are surviving a pandemic. Our students are not behind because every student in the whole world has faced the pandemic. Let’s use the early out time the rest of this year to learn how to do blended learning and social/emotional learning better and become trauma-sensitive, and come back in the Fall to do better what we always do – take kids where they are and get them to progress toward their potential. Our elementary students need consistency, not more major changes this school year. We would only gain 4000 minutes in elementary, most of which would be used by added specialty courses, recesses, and teaching and reinforcing a new procedure. Factoring those things in, we would realistically be gaining far less than 2000 minutes – which is not worth the stress on students and staff it would cause. It is bad timing – March has no breaks, and a change just before spring break would be a waste of time because the new routine would need to be taught again after. How would proper sanitization still occur? Mental health concerns for students and staff – too many changes, not enough time to prepare (it takes a full summer to prepare an effective schedule, hire people for currently unnecessary positions, etc.), very little stamina for full days, especially masks that long. How will elementary schools do PE when their gyms are being used for social distancing during meals – being outside is impractical with weather.”

I barely have enough time to get everything done for my in school and home study students with the time I currently have, and put in multiple hours every day after contract time, including over the weekend. If we go to school full time, there is no way to social distance during lunch AND allow teachers to have their duty free lunch. I currently eat lunch after the students leave for the day. I do not want to go to a full day of work. If we do, all home study students, even if they are “succeeding” need to switch to eschool. It also should switch after spring break, but again, I DO NOT SUPPORT GOING BACK TO A FULL DAY.

I believe that teachers need more preparation for younger students during these uncertain times. I do not think moving to phase three would be easy on teachers or staff right now and is creates even longer school days.

I don’t think it’s a smart idea to go to phase three yet.

we are getting too confident assuming itâ€™s not going to get worse when we go back to phase 3. a lot of students have jobs now because of covid-19. parents canâ€™t afford many things because they are laid off for 2 weeks or longer and need help from their kids to keep up with the bills. students who already had jobs are being put in a position where they have to choose work or school and if it comes down to it they will choose what pays the bills. students mental health is on thin ice between work, school, taking care of siblings, fees/bills etc. If the students canâ€™t even sit next to each other at basketball games why is going to phase 3 a good idea. the majority of my family already have other medical problems like asthma why put them at a higher risk? some of my family members are also pregnant why put them at a higher risk? grandparents live with us why put them at a higher risk? a lot of people are getting put at a higher risk and for what? just for an extra 2 hours of school that wonâ€™t even make a difference in the end but increase stress levels, mental illnesses, and in general just make it harder for the students and parents. personally i would not like my child going to phase 3 and if they do i will take in consideration switching districts or doing online school completely so that more stress isnâ€™t added and to be more cautious.

I suggest we finish the year in Phase II. There are only 3 months left, and moving to Phase III will mean the students will be facing yet another change and schedules will have to be altered/changed again. At this point lets just keep everything the same until we start school school again in August.

Seriously? School is almost over leave the schedule as it is.

Phase 2 is working out perfectly. All the switching of phases has been very difficult to manage. I would keep the schools in this phase until the end of the school year.

I am not supportive of moving high school to phase 3. Stability is needed for students and teachers. I still have a ton of home study students — you would need to remove ALL home study students. There is still so much work that teachers still need to do with putting material on line.

Timpview students had a large party that was in the news. I would feel more comfortable waiting to finalize the HS decision until we see any possible repercussions to that irresponsible gathering.

I do not see the difference in adding more hours to the schedule. Our students have done well with the new schedule and feel that adding more hours would only cause the students to decline in their desire to learn.

If we were to move to phase 3 there would 100% be a spike in covid cases and i would rather not even risk it. Apart from that lunch would be much more complicated due to the fact that there would be well over 200 students without masks in close contact to each other. There is also the fact that a lot of students have after school jobs to help out their families and if we move to phase 3 they could rush losing that job. Another thing to take into consideration is that if for some reason we have to move back to phase 1 it would push a lot of things back and stress everyone out. I am a student at provo high school and i have talked to a lot of my fellow students and just about every student iâ€™ve spoken to about this is against moving to phase 3. Thank you for your time and Please listen to the student body over everyone else, weâ€™re the ones on the floor and we know how things actually are. Sincerely, a Provo High School Student.

“The current time in school WITH A MASK, is doable though difficult. Adding more time seems unimaginable as an adult. Elementary students comply but with increasing complaints (possibly because mask wearing isn’t supported at home, from genuine discomfort or both.)

The need to remain as socially distant as possible causes problems with gyms converted to lunch rooms (where mask wearing is impossible and therefore, more bodies cannot be added safely). Schools are maximizing the space available and returning to full time school will result in doubling up demand for the limited space. In addition, having steady infection numbers doesn’t address the issue of increased sanitization.

Schools across the nation are just getting back into in person school using similar Covid-19 protocols, why are we acting like the pandemic is over?”

I am concerned with the time needed to clean the building with full time school. The elementary schools get out later and it would be difficult for staff to leave by 4:00 in order for cleaning to take place. If I have IEPs after school they may run past 4:00.

Phase 2 is working without a lot of sicknesses. And wearing a mask for so many hours is tough!!

“I am absolutely overwhelmed and buried in schoolwork, my personal life, and the feeling of uncertainty with the vaccine and reaching herd immunity. I don’t know if I can mentally work with my kids for a couple of more hours. I’m exhausted physically and emotionally by lunchtime. I can tell that the kids aren’t fine this year and they are in need of more one-on-one attention than I have seen in my 18 years of teaching. Kids are taking everything from me right now and I just don’t know if I can make it all day and stay mentally and emotionally healthy. I’m sorry. I wish I could say yes to going all day, but I’m treading water as it is. This has been one of the hardest years of my career and the pandemic hasn’t only affected our jobs, but our personal lives which are being overwhelmed by work responsibilities. I don’t even dare to take a day off to rejuvenate because someone who is sick might need the few substitutes we have. I know most of the people in my building do this as well.

If you walk around the schools and sit for a while in the classrooms, I promise, you will see what I mean. Teachers are so exhausted and really, they aren’t fine. They’re just doing a really good job of being brave and putting on a show for the kids.”

Although increasing the time in the classroom is important, the number of changes that students have been through this year has been severely detrimental. I think that putting the elementary and middle school students through another significant schedule change so close to the end of the year would have a very negative effect on most students, especially the younger ones.

This is asking a lot from teachers. The end of March is already a tough time, let alone the idea of changing schedules, going back to a full curriculum while still enforcing masks and hygiene routines. This would make more sense to start a full schedule next school year in August. I really hope the district takes the well being of their teachers into consideration when making this decision.

I think it is still too early to switch to a phase 3 schedule, if the cases spike students will be forced to go back to phase 1 or 2 and that will just set back everyone.

I am an elementary school teacher. The moment the students leave in the afternoon, I rip off my mask. I canâ€™t imagine how it would feel to wear the mask for two more hours every day. Honestly, the thought of that makes me hyperventilate!

“Our students and teachers are already stressed and stretched thin. All the (premature) changes to the schedules and expectations this year have left kids and teachers feeling like they have no stable ground and no support. Phase 3 will mean unmasked lunches during which contract tracing is impossible. Teaching all day in a mask is also a drain on our energy and resources (I’d love to see the school board try doing it and see how they feel at the end of the day!). Just because the trend is going down doesn’t mean it’s safe to re-open entirely. Just because vaccinations are happening, doesn’t mean there’s no risk. Just because there is a loud minority of parents telling you to re-open, favoring grades over student health, doesn’t mean you should. Your data points are giving you a false sense of security and are allowing you to confirm your bias toward re-opening.

You’re already putting enough of our students and teacher’s health, sanity, and lives at risk, and I’d appreciate it if you just let us have some modicum of peace and stability for the last 9 weeks of this insane school year.

Sincerely, a vaccinated teacher who is getting a Covid test tomorrow because of potential symptoms.”

The transition from Phase 2 to Phase 3 will be difficult for high school/middle school students as their schedules and emotional states are not as flexible to change. They finally have a routine. The school year is almost over so just keep the education level the same and change it next year.

As a custodial worker I know how important it is to get the students back to normal. I would recommend a short day on Friday to give my staff a chance to do deep disinfection.

Would I be “supportive”- yes. But do I believe it’s the best option, no. I don’t feel we get a worthy positive return.

I am in transportation and didnâ€™t see an option but… I am in favor. Letâ€™s go back 🙂

I think the best idea for safety and to continue to see improvement we should stay the course we are on. Phase 2 is best. In addition, I don’t feel our school is prepared for the transition to phase 3

I would be supportive of transitioning to full time school if we get prep time during the school day. Right now we hardly get any prep time during school so it is nice to have the extra time after school because school is let out early. So I would need prep time everyday to be supportive of this decision.

We should wait until next year. There has been to much change.

I think kids are already here so letâ€™s use whatever time we can. I donâ€™t have concerns about the extra time.

I am still planning on line because I have kids go out. They are not always out because they have COVID . Sometimes parents are afraid to have them come because of the birth of a new baby or because someone might have exposed them and they feel better not taking a chance. I would prefer to wait until after spring break when the weather will improve because we promised these parents that this would be available to them. I have never worked as hard as this year and it continues to be a load. Please at least wait until after spring break if you feel this is a necessary move.

I donâ€™t believe asking the students, teachers, and staff to undergo yet another transition during this crazy time is in anyoneâ€™s best interest.

I work for transportation and phase 3 wonâ€™t affect me too much, Iâ€™m just happy to keep driving.

We do not have the right to change the schedule on these kids one more time this year. They have been in a steady state of confusion and change for a solid year. It is not in their best interest to change one more time to finish out this school year. We can’t make up the lost instruction time in 6 weeks and it would be only for form sake to make this change. The school board was not interested in doing what was best for the kids education all year long, it is too late to try to save face now. The staff are also tired and overworked and do not have any more hours to work over the 29 that are allotted and this change would put undue stress on many areas of the district that have been overlooked since this started last March. Namely kitchen staff, janitorial staff, bus drivers etc. The kitchen staff have work harder and understaffed since last March . As teachers, administrators, district staff etc were able to work from home and get paid or not work and still get paid, whatever that case was for each of these employees. Your child nutrition department worked tirelessly as did custodial staff cleaning ect. This change would be unfair to these employees who have already worked above and beyond their job requirements and placed themselves in harms way, while all others stayed home in the safety of their homes.

Wearing masks for a full day every day can be really hard.

Students don’t have the stamina to go full days at this time as well as behaviors are already increasing and becoming a problem. Elementary schools have to change their whole schedule and stress levels are already at an all time high. Just wait until next year and start fresh. This little time isn’t going to do anything but add stress to students, parents, staff, and teachers.

I say that I would be supportive of all schools going back, but I do have some concerns. From the perspective of an employee, I would hope teachers will be given enough time from when the decision is made until the actual start date, so they can adequately prepare. Secondly, from the perspective as aside parent, I’m concerned about the homework load that my middle school and high school children have been given. I don’t support going back full time if teachers feel they have to play catch up and give the students more homework than they already have. My children are “A” students but it has been rough for them trying to keep up during all of the transitions during the year. If student return full time, I’m hoping for flexibility and awareness of the amount of homework kids are being asked to do.

I think making the schools full time will help the students learn more and get the most out of school. It seems that having a shorten day the students tend to learn less and have a poor attitude about attending school and its activities.

Not until the state lifts the mandation.

I think it would be a better idea to just go the rest of the year on Phase 2.5 since we’re only 3 months out from summer break instead of going back to full schedule. At this point in the year I’m not sure if it would really make a difference, so we might as well just finish the year with the schedule we have now and come back in the fall at full schedule.

“While I feel totally safe returning to school full time and will support the decision, I just wonder if itâ€™s worth it this close to the end of the school year. Itâ€™s another schedule change for students and families as well as teachers. I also wonder about doing it right before spring break, when there is a good chance people will be vacationing and possibly spending time in big groups. If the numbers went up and that required you to go back a phase, that would be yet another change for families. Iâ€™m looking forward to anything that gets us closer normalcy, but maybe this close to the end if the year itâ€™s not worth it.”

I would suggest keeping things as is through the end of the school year. Parents, students, faculty and staff have planned their lives around the current schedule. Another big change this late in the year would be stressful for most. Now is the time to announce the plan for Fall 2021.

Students are already experiences mask fatigue, and asking them to mask up for two more hours a day, especially as the weather warms up, will be extremely difficult. They have experienced so many changes in schedules this year already that it makes sense to keep things stable for students. I think a better option would be to finish out this school year as is, and begin next school year as near to normal as possible.

I think that it will not benefit any secondary student or teacher to move to phase 3 for the last term. Elementary schools would benefit for end of year testing. Secondary students will check out early, especially with the weather starting to get better and warmer.

“I don’t have any safety concerns at all. The district has done a wonderful job of keeping everyone safe this year. My biggest concern is the time it still takes to prepare online lessons for the students who are still either officially learning from home and the students who are are still missing class frequently for health reasons. I know the district has been trying to cut down on the number of students learning from home, which is very nice.

The problem is that it takes the same amount of time to prepare an online lesson for one student as it does for twenty students. Reducing the number of kids learning from home hasn’t reduced my workload.

Since having the kidlets back on Fridays, I have had to spend a significant amount of time building lessons in the evenings and on weekends. I am sure that will increase when we add more time to the school day. But as I said, the increased workload and decreased preparation time is my only concern.

Thank you so much for always reaching out to get input from the staff and families!”

“Students, families, and teachers have already had several significant schedule changes. Each has been highly disruptive. Please donâ€™t change the schedule again.

We feel confident that my students have learned and progressed comparatively the same they would have had we been on a regular school day schedule.”

I am not sure how the secondary schools can go to Phase 3. But I think elementary schools are ready to go.

We are finally seeing numbers for down. Students and teachers have had enough change. They are settled in. Allowing us to finish the year as is and plan for a full return this fall is important logistically and mentally. Asking teachers to adjust again is not indicative of all they have given you already. Asking students to transition again is asking to repeat the same process of adjusting they have done so well but are exhausted from doing. Allow them some grace.

With two months left of the school year by that time, and with our schedule already changing thrice this school year alone, I feel it would be better to continue with the current schedule until the end of the school year.

There have been too many schedule changes this year already, in my opinion. We have many children that are struggling to stay at school on this abbreviated schedule. Making those children stay an additional two hours everyday is too much. Let us finish out this school year as is and start with full days beginning next school year.

There have been more students reaching out to teachers with suicidal thoughts this year than ever before. STudents needs consistency and moving to Phase 3 this late in the year will do more harm than good. This is NOT a good idea to move schools to Phase 3. They will be in there masks and sitting in their desks TOO long. You want them in school longer but aren’t giving them the outlets to blow off steam and have fun.

Elementary schools will not gain any academic time. The added time would quickly be used up with recess and specials. It’s not worth it to me as a teacher.

“General: Students and teachers are still adjusting from the last change. We keep adapting, but it is taking a big toll. (Parents of older students have voiced fears of changing to Phase 3 and then soon having to revert back.)

Specific: PreK, in particular, would not experience a learning gain, but instead a great disruption to learning flow if schedules change because it would impact student food & nap times. Lengthened class time would necessitate providing a snack which would take 15 min resulting in only 15 min of class time increase. Snack time also requires more safety protocols and more time with kids without a mask. This is a safety issue. (All snacks need to be consumed outside for distancing-even during the rainy season.)

Changing PreK schedules, though a challenge to all, especially impacts afternoon class students and parents. “”Full day”” pm class start & end times are much different and cause significant changes to nap times, babysitter & parent schedules for mid-day drop off & pick up. Many of our parents work and have already made great effort to arrange work schedules or help from others to meet the current schedule. Changing schedules and routines for young learners and their parents have high impact. PreK students are thriving and are meeting all essentials. Going longer M – Th and back to shorter on Fri would be more disruptive than helpful for these students and not worth the few more minutes of class. We should maintain current PreK schedules.”

Elementary schools are losing valuable time in teaching critical skills and knowledge. I don’t think you need to move middle or high schools back.

I canâ€™t wait for a typical school day. But… we have had so many schedule changes in the past year. It makes a difficult situation more difficult. We are now in term 3. Letâ€™s leave the schedule as it is for the rest of this school year and go back (if it is safe) next August. I would hate for there to be another Covid wave and we would have to tighten up again. A full day schedule will make my work so much more manageable- just not this school year. My brain canâ€™t take much more change at work.

“Asking students and teachers to be in masks ALL DAY is a lot. Additionally, less than a month ago, I was told that we were not able to rotate students within our grade level because we needed to â€œminimize risk.â€ This is not minimizing risk. From a mental standpoint, I literally will be unable to continue working if I have to be with my students all day without proper tier 2. Itâ€™s exhausting (and not effective) for me to work with groups for 15 minutes and then have to change groups. What about our planning? If we have to be out of the building by 4 but students leave at 3:20, where is the time to prep? The superintendent said to leave work at work. We obviously donâ€™t, but now itâ€™s a physical limitation of not being able to get copies, plan as a PLC, etc. LASTLY, this is going to escalate behaviors. Students are already tired and struggle to keep masks on the correct way, not to mention the social distancing aspect.”

As long as we are still concerned about social distancing and wearing masks etc. it seems unwise to move to a full day of school. Unless we want to over pack our lunch room, we will have to do a crazy lunch schedule that will be disruptive to everyone and really won’t give us much more classroom time. The changes are always disruptive and we are in a good grove at the moment – I wouldn’t want to disrupt that for anyone. Plus as long as teachers are expected to keep in touch with and provide digital work for students working from home for illness and etc. we need that extra time each day to do so. I currently have between 5-10 students each day missing and some are long term. It takes the same amount of time to publish digital work for one or 150 but each individual email takes time. The after school bus and homework help is a great solution to give some kids the extra time that they need. I think it would be wise to stay the course for the rest of the year.

My students are already struggling wearing their masks. By the end of the day I am constantly having to remind them to put their masks up. Extending the day would make this even more difficult for them. This would only increase the behaviors that start to happen this time of year. March is a difficult month for everyone, students and teachers. Starting this new schedule would add even more stress. We are so close to the end of the year and testing time. This doesnâ€™t seem productive to cause teachers and students more stress and behavior concerns during a time when we should be working to help show their best abilities.

We are having a very hard time getting students to properly wear masks for the amount of time they are in school. Adding more time will just make it that much harder. Additionally, our teachers are still overwhelmed with trying to keep on top of the amount of work that is generated by attempting to accommodate students at home, in school, or some combination of both. Many of our students have adjusted their work schedules to accommodate school and still try and help their families as much as possible. My concern is that some of these students will choose to work over coming to school if we impact that at this point.

“Wearing the mask for the amount of hours we already do is really awful! Have you tried doing a read-aloud with a mask? How about full lessons? We have to speak louder and enunciate our words more because of the mask, this extra exertion wears us out! I have never been more tired than I am this year. The added stress with terrible attendance and trying to get parents to support their child is overwhelming this year.

How will the schools have enough time for proper cleaning? Also, it’s already been difficult keeping up with subs, but at least now, there’s the perk of a shorter day.

Can teachers just get a small break this year? We have been and are still going through so much! I feel like I worked two jobs the first 4 months of school. Our district is already beyond most in the amount of school we have offered students this year.”

I worry very much about the mental health of students. This switching around and the changes is a lot for them. Every change that we have had I have seen an increase in behavioral issues. These children have had to deal with so much change and so much stress I would like to keep things steady now that weâ€™ve been on the same schedule for a while now. And then start fresh in the new school year

The constant changing of our schedules is causing undue stress on students, parents, faculty, staff and business partners. It seems like once we start feeling like we have a good handle on the current structure, it is changed again. Adding this additional time at this point in the school year will cause more harm than good.

It doesn’t make sense to me to switch to a full day when we would be in the last term if the switch happens near the end of March. Students and teachers will have mask fatigue, but especially the students who sometimes struggle to wear it all day now, when we end at 1:40. Additionally, I don’t know how specialties would work if that were to happen, especially PE and music as those aren’t especially COVID-friendly, but teachers would need that planning time since we would be losing it after students leave. I really think it would be best to just leave the schedule as is for the remainder of the school year, but especially where it would be extremely hard on the students to suddenly switch (and only a month before testing starts!)

I don’t know if supportive is the right word. I think it would be a huge adjustment for our kids as well as the faculty and staff. I guess it would be helpful with testing coming up.

Students are now feeling comfortable coming to school. Why mess with a good thing and start another outbreak?

High schoolers spend more time together outside of school (being friends and extra curricular school activities). It can be very difficult or impossible to mandate students wearing their masks around each other outside of school hours. We donâ€™t see this same concern with elementary school students, and cases in general for elementary aged students are very low.

Many students are working to supplement family income currently.

Iâ€™m supportive of Phase 3

“I still have several students who cannot attend because of various reasons. I need to be able to accommodate for them with online materials. I agree the numbers have decreased but they have not gone away. As a teacher I need to be able to support ALL of my students

I cannot work full time in the classroom and continue an online presence. I am already overwhelmed and exhausted from the entire year.

I would appreciate if we could hold off until students are not afraid of infecting a family member and feel comfortable about returning to school. Also I still have students who either have COVID or are quarantined because of COVID.

I donâ€™t think it would hurt the students to wait to go to phase 3 and I know it would hurt a dozen or my students if we do go to phase 3

I am begging you donâ€™t put anymore extra work on teachers right now. We are barely hanging! It can wait another 4-6 weeks”

Yes, as long as teachers aren’t responsible for home schoolers. The work load would be too heavy, at least in elementary. I can’t speak to middle and HS.

We are in school 5 days a week currently. Teachers have had to do a remarkable amount of work this year to transition online and under the stress of COVID. It would be useful to offer extended day options for the students that are in need of support. Going full time will further eclipse the teachers’ opportunity to offer extended support to those with the highest need. I would be in favor of expanding the Dixon model across the district.

I feel the classroom learning time is critical plus with state testing in term 4 it would help because with 35 minutes classes logging in and cleaning up shorten the time in class…I know my students expressed that they like the shorter day but they do not do much at home. It would also allow for remediation as well as enrichment.

I am a DLI teacher and have 2 classes every day and be able to help my students with quality has been challenging. I truly appreciate all the support and making sure that everybody is safe. I am talking especially for Elementary which I work every day. The students are happy, I am happy, and I truly can’t wait to have spent more time with that cutie pies and have fun with Math, Portuguese, and Science!

Mask fatigue is very real. We see it in all our teachers and students. Extending the day without addressing this and how if affects instruction and learning would add to the burnout of teachers and students

I am worried about lunchtime at the high schools. I don’t think that having 3 lunches is very feasible.

“I do not want my kids in masks for that long, especially in elementary school. I would say yes letâ€™s go back full schedule withOUT masks and just ask kids to wash their hands in sinks with soap and water EVERY time they come into the classroom. There are only a few months left in this school year and I think the shortened day schedule has been just great. And should continue the rest of this school year.”

Lot of High School students do not respect the right use of the masks. If they mmmm stay the whole day they will be staying for lunch which will be the a mayor problem.

Students and teachers alike are sick of schedule changes, drained by inconsistency, and burned out. The online component of classrooms is an expectation that will not go away, and this is completed gradually. It takes time to set up, time that will still be asked of teachers whether or not that time is provided. Additionally, it makes no sense to go back to a normal schedule while athletics and extracurricular activities are still being limited outside of school hours. We have one term left; letâ€™s finish this strange year with a little extra time allowed for students and teachers to make accommodations.

Lately, I’ve been really worried about student burnout. I don’t think that moving to Phase 3 would be the best option for them.

Letâ€™s get back to normal

Phase 2.5 is best

I would like to see schools transition to full time right after the Spring Break when more of the Utah general population will be vaccinated by then. (We will deal with a few more less absences due to students needing to stay home because they are ill or a family member is). I am also concerned by how well and effectively custodial services will be able to continue to deep clean and disinfect our school building during and after hours. I am concerned that a longer day will have everyone get more lax despite masks. Finally, communicating as much as we do with our students and vice-versa, a 8:40 to 3:20 day will be long and uncomfortable, but I realize that is a detail in the grand scheme of things and other districts are already doing it. I know teachers’ opinions are second to parents and board members and that we have been blessed with early vaccination, for which I am very grateful, so I don’t think what I have said matters much but there it is nonetheless.

Students need to be in school. We might still have time to help the catch up.

Lunch is a major safety concern. As time goes on, students have become more complacent and defiant about wearing masks. With no actual way to enforce this and then providing a â€œlegalâ€ way for them to remove their masks and mingle for 40 min at lunch makes it seem like we are asking for more non-compliance.

All of the special education students have been accustomed to the shortened school day, and trying to change their routine with only a few months left would be chaotic for the students, and all staff involved. I’d suggest leaving the routine as is, and waiting until the beginning of the next school year to go back to the regular (lengthened) school day.

I think that the younger students will have a difficult time adjusting to a full day. I don’t think that the final 2 months of full day will impact their learning dramatically. Thank you for allowing comments.

The constant changing of schedules has been hard on students and teachers alike. Changing again would mean having to redo everyoneâ€™s schedule once again. Itâ€™s been a hard year and weâ€™re tired. We are now into a routine and students are learning. Canâ€™t we just leave it be for the short time we have left this school year.

Teachers need to know well in advance before this change should happen. While I fully support going to phase 3, this will drastically change my schedule and potentially the number of students that come to school.

The prep time after school is still invaluable when working with students who are quarantined. Even though I have had less students quarantined, it still requires a lot of time and work to even have 1 quarantined student.

The week after fall break is the best timing to move to phase 3.

“Of course we want to get back to regular school hours. If we do it, let’s do it at the term. Let’s do it with caution and preparation and not under pressure.

We will not be able to shepherd stay-at home students the same way we can now. There are still quite a few of these. Not everyone has switched to BYU who is permanently home.

Additionally there are those who get COVID who will be out for a while.

We can’t do the perfect thing for every situation and context.

Phase 3 is best for the most.”

The kids are ready, parents and teachers are ready to get the kids back. Everyone has been trained to wear a mask and try to stay 6 feet apart. Get the kids back in school!!

Students are struggling with at home learning. They should be back in the classroom as soon as possible.

We can’t do it! Mentally, physically, and emotionally we are worn out. Why can’t we finish the rest of the school year with half days and come back in August back to normal. Have the summer to reset and come back normal.

The district is ready and has done its due diligence to lower the #.

I have very mixed feelings, but I feel like fatigue of students and teachers has set in. Fatigue of masks, fatigue of the pandemic, and change fatigue. Families have needed to endure many changes as well. I understand that going full day looks like a student-centric decision, but I am not sure any gains academically will out weigh the emotional/mental toll this has on students, teachers, and families. I would love to wait until next year to regroup and go full time. After a year of change nd craziness, some consistency would go a long way.

Yes, we need to get back to full time! Our students definitely need more face to face interaction.

Students and teachers have had their schedules changed so many times in the past year. Their routines have been overhauled every single time. The most certain thing in this pandemic has been that we can’t know what our lives will look like in a month…or even a week. “Powers that be” will change everything about our lives every few weeks and we have no say. I plead with you to let teachers finish the year with the rhythms and routines they have developed (and re-developed, and re-developed, and re-developed). I plead with you to let something be consistent for one more term, for the benefit of all who are feeling nothing but insecurity. Tell our parents, students, and teachers, loud and clear: your mental health matters, we will not change your schedule any more this year, plan for full school days in August, and take care of yourself!

Teachers are still expected to provide online content for home-study, quarantining, or chronically absent students. Until we are no longer expected to do that, it isn’t possible for us to teach full days. And I don’t think it’s really feasible for the district to ask us to stop doing that right now. You would have to remove the home-study students, let the quarantining students fail, and stop reaching out to chronically absent students. That just doesn’t seem realistic mid-year and before the pandemic ends.

Transitioning to phase 3 will be hard on students, parents, and teachers at that point after we have all just adjusted to phase 2.5. I will support whatever is decided, but it seems more beneficial to end the year how we are and then start in phase 3 for the next school year. Even though schools seem to be doing ok with transition rates Utah county is still very high. It also doesnâ€™t make sense to go to phase 3, have a week off for spring break and then bring everyone back together with more time together after a break where many could be infected. It is hard on everyone to go to a new phase and then have to go backwards because of breakouts.

As much as I would love to go back to full time school the idea of teaching in a mask for 6 hours straight is unbearable. The students canâ€™t hear me. I sweat to death. I lose my breath. Not to mention Iâ€™m constantly reminding students to put their masks over their nose and sometimes mouth. Iâ€™m now immunized against the virus and wish that meant something more then a paper in my wallet. I wish it meant I could teach without a mask. It would be so much more enjoyable for me and the students.

“I feel like where we are now is a better situation for students and teachers than going full time. Giving kids 10 more minutes in each class isn’t going to make a significant difference in their academics. Having students in school full time creates safety issues with lunch. We have kept the students in our classrooms to keep them safe with their masks off and not taken our lunch until 1:00. If you go full time, lunch will have to be in the middle of the day which means hundreds of students in the lunchroom with masks off at the same time. We are already in school more than our neighboring district and far more than the majority of the country. Just because case counts have dropped doesn’t mean we are back to normal. The anxiety of the students is still high. Making another schedule change is another adjustment we are expecting them to make. It not only means longer days, but a new bell schedule and new procedures for lunch on top of whatever changes occur in classrooms. Attendance is still an issue and providing online content takes time. Putting the kids in the building for another 9-10 hours will take away that time from teacher planning, preparation and intervention and force them to spend more time at school or home trying to meet student needs.”

As a teacher I am still doing both roles of teaching kids at home and at school. I work more than enough hours covering both with the early out. This would make an extremely tough year worse. People still get COVID and I still have to teach them. Please donâ€™t add this extra burden unless you donâ€™t allow students to be at home for school.

It has been a really hard year, and March is an exceptionally hard month for teachers and students. There are no breaks, the weather is warming up and students struggle to stay focused. I feel that we have all had to make continual changes throughout this year, and we would be better served by letting the school year finish out in the current phase 2 stage.

On a whole this school year has caused great emotional trauma to students and teachers alike. This has particularly affected the demographic of our school. One of my concerns with going to full days is that my students will begin to exhibit behavior issues with longer days. Students attending class with COVID restrictions is particular exhausting, especially for the student in the lower grades. Another concern I have is less time to plan while in the building since our cleaning staff still needs time to sanitizer the building after the students leave each day. With longer days the teachers won’t be allowed to stay in the building to prep after school, but will still be required to leave before they are prepared for the next day. Another concern with moving to a full day schedule is that schools will be forced to change the established daily schedule such lunch, para professional pull out groups, specialists schedule which will take significant amount of time to put in effect. I would really love to finish out the school year as is and consider moving to full days in the fall with the new school year. It has been really hard to teach with all the changes this year. I feel as though every time I finally get a handle on the schedule things change once again. Please consider keeping the schedule the way it is for my sanity and all teacher. Thank you!

There has been too much change this year. Yes, kids are resilient, but they also need stability and routine.

I would love it if all schools transitioned to phase 3. As a bus driver for Provo High, my high schoolers want to be in school full time simply for the learning. They have such a hard time with online. With my Provo peaks, there is no reasons to hold them back.

I think we are ready to go back to a more normal schedule at the elementary and middle school. High school would be difficult with spacing kids for lunch.

We have been whipped around like crazy since covid hit. Jumping fully online last year and schedule changes at the drop of a hat this year. Teachers and students alike have had to adjust to a whole new type of school system this year! We are getting the hang of what we are doing and then it gets changed without our input. Phase 3 would be a huge injustice to the students who have been working hard all year to adjust to online learning and teachers who have had to create brand new content all year! Please just leave the schedule as is for the remaining term we have left and go back full time in the fall. I am begging. I am exhausted, I have been working TWO jobs this year. Online educator and face to face educator! I need the time after school to create content for these students.

Just coming back to school five days/week in phase 2.5 has put our students in an emotional tailspin.

I do not feel the students NOR the staff would be prepared for this shift. The students need consistency.

Please stop changing the schedule. Students need something stable in their life. Leave the schedule alone for the rest of the year.

I think making that transition that that time would be a mistake. Mark is a long month in the school year as there are no breaks. Teachers commonly see an increase in behavior problems and a decrease in focus during the last few weeks in March. I feel like it would be more beneficial to wait at least until after spring break

The younger children could benefit from the extra time in school and getting instruction. They do not do as much online work. The older students, particularly 7th graders have had no consistency over the school year in a new environment that they are not used to. Another change for them for last term could be really difficult. The middle school students have been better about blended learning.

Secondary teachers will still be expected to have an online presence and provide learning via learning management systems (e.g., Canvas), especially for students that need to quarantine/isolate. Secondary teachers will need the extra planing time in the afternoon to provide this support to students and families. Thank you for your consideration.

I work with special needs individuals and this change will not be a good fit for them right now. These students have had a lot of change this year already. The school year is almost over. I think the schedule needs to stay the same until the end of the school year. The school year 2021-2022 should go back to normal schedule not this year.

This works as long as all students are required to come back in person and attendance continues to be mandatory.

“Yes, I would LOVE to see my students full time. At the same time, however, I feel that as we near the end of the school year we should leave our schedule alone. Things are going well and students have some normalcy.

If we return to full days, when will teachers have time to upload to Canvas for blended learning, etc.? Remember, we still have students needing to be quarantined and getting sick, teachers and students are reaching out to each other when needed and kids are still able to learn online. Currently, the early out allows the time (though already minimal) to help these students. With a full schedule, this time is gone.

Lunch will also become a bigger issue than it already is. If you want to students to be supervised during their lunch break and to spread students out, etc., it will not happen with a full schedule as you would have to allow teachers a duty free lunch.

Though yes, I would love to have my students back full time, my opinion is to leave our schedule the way it is. The kids have a routine. they have some normalcy, in an already chaotic school year, let them keep that.

If we were going to the change the schedule, we should have done it at the semester break. Things are going well and I fear that if we jump to soon, we will be back to phase 1 to end the school year. Which none of us want to see happen.

If you decide to return to a full schedule, I would encourage you to look at”

“With longer days, I’m hoping they do not kick us out at 4:00 pm. Last year I left work around 5:30-6:00 pre-COVID and would likely have to do the same. I can take work home, but there’s quite a bit that I need to do in person each day to prepare my classroom and lesson plans for the following day.

I’m hoping that with the extended time that specials would come back. I can’t imagine having a whole extra 2 hours of straight academics. I am worried because Amelia no longer has a P.E. teacher, so I’m not sure how that works. I would really like to have my planning time (even though as a behavior teacher we usually don’t end up getting it anyway haha).

I worry about mask fatigue with elementary-aged students. The students in my class have a hard time wearing them. I worry that with the precautions and social distancing in place that mask fatigue would be a lot worse adding 2 more hours to the school day.

If we have students who do home study, how will they check in with their teachers after school if it goes until 3:30? I am currently working 1 hour a day from 2:00 – 3:00 pm with a student who is supposed to be in my class because they are not attending school. I don’t know how I’ll be able to help him if we go back to full-time. However, I am legally obligated to under IDEA and special ed law.”

Weâ€™ve already changed our schedules for the new Year and this would be a huge inconvenience.

Small kids donâ€™t keep their masks up at all time, some donâ€™t have good hygiene and donâ€™t want to use hand sanitizer. We have to keep cleaning and try to wash my hands as often as I can and change mask if Iâ€™m helping a student that is sneezing or is not using his/her mask properly and keeps poking nose. I think going half day for elementary is still good since they donâ€™t follow the proper precautions and health practice as older kids do.

“As a teacher, I request at least 14 days to prepare for this adjustment. There will be a lot of changes that will need to take place. It’s not just planning and preparing for a longer day. (1) PREP TIME. The after school time (due to early out) is our only prep time. Our school’s specialty classes will need to be in place so that teachers can have our contracted prep time. We currently don’t even have enough specialty teachers hired for that to happen. (2) INTERVENTIONS. Our interventions are being done after the school day. That will no longer be possible, and we will have to create a new plan for students to receive interventions within the school day. It’s a domino effect to try to shuffle existing resources (paras, rooms, etc) within our school to meet this great need. (3) SUPERVISION. Again, we’ll need to shuffle paraprofessionals to cover different supervision times. Several of them have second jobs, and we are already up against the 29 hour rule. This will take some time to fix, including possibly hiring additional paras. (4) OTHER. There are other preparations that take time, such as redoing posted schedules and other physical items. Please respect the time it takes for educators to discuss and collaboratively plan for these adjustments, rather than requiring educators to frantically throw a bandaid on student needs over a weekend.”

“Please know that the following is meant with the utmost respect.

My opinion is that we should work toward being functional mask-free before we push the students to full days. Many teachers are still feeling a huge disconnect with their students because of masks and honestly, I feel that forcing them to wear them becomes a safety issue because we cannot see their faces. (Think kidnappings, school threats, etc.) I know that the students want to feel safe and being surrounded by a sea of masks is not giving them that safe feeling. If we are being honest with ourselves, if students are friends with one another and see each other outside of school, they DON’T have their masks on. Therefore, masks aren’t really preventing anything.

As for the students opinions, they are tired of the masks and tired of all the changes. Bouncing from phase 1, to 2, to 2.5, back to 1, back to 2.5 is giving them WHIPLASH. The teachers are struggling to keep up with the phase changes and this creates more uncertainty for students. Teachers will finally get a routine going within a phase, then a new curveball is thrown at us and that causes teachers to fumble through the change which IS NOT HELPING OUR STUDENTS. (Think 8 classes all fumbling simultaneously).

STOP MAKING EVERYONE’S LIVES DIFFICULT! It’s not fair to the teachers or the students! We’re are all frustrated and just want things to be somewhat consistent! Stop changing things for the sake of us all!”

I think that students would benefit from increased time in school and it would be good for teachers to transition back to full time so that it is not such a big shock next year.

If masks are still around, I would say no. We are weary of mask wearing. I can barely make it through the early out day let alone longer. The students are the same.

Parents expect home study to remain and option and I still need afternoons to prep.

“People need stability. This year has been anything but stable. Transitioning once again to a new phase will mean new routines for all parents, students, and teachers. As a teacher, I have JUST BARELY solidified my Friday routine. My entire schedule (not a joke) changed with the Friday addition. If we transition to phase 3, we will once again need to spend hours reworking our schedules. Itâ€™s hard on the administration team, itâ€™s hard on special education and specialty classes, and itâ€™s hard on general education teachers. Not to mention the impact it has on the students with major (or minor) behavior plans, those with disabilities, and those that just have a hard time adjusting to new things. Please let us finish out the school year in this new normal that is 5 half days. We will happily go back full time in August. Weâ€™ve felt so many losses this year, and staying put with this schedule would give us a huge win.”

Yes! Please! I really need those extra hours in my day to serve students. Iâ€™m a related server at 2 elementary schools & early out has been hard!

I see the kids still being stressed about Covid. This has been traumatic for many students. I donâ€™t think that full time is in their best interest.

Better starting after the spring break

If we are expected to still fully support any students who are quarantined we need the prep time to do so. It is unreasonable to expect teachers to do even more work than we are already doing without giving us additional paid time to do so. As it is, just the change to phase 2.5 has made it incredibly difficult to support my students who have been forced to quarantine within the current amount of preparation time that we do have. I would not fully support such a change unless we were to get to a point where no students will be quarantined, which I don’t think will be reached this year at the high school level.

I think that it would be hard for students to adjust to the full time now that the year is almost at an end. Full time school should start next year

The numbers have not been consistent long enough to make this transition. My vote is to finish this school year at 2.5.

I understand that numbers have been becoming better but there’s still risk and there’s still a sickness going around. Quite a few students and staff aren’t wearing masks correctly, I think it’ll put more risk.

Iâ€™ve asked all of my students what they think (all high school ELLs). None are supporting of moving to phase 3. I donâ€™t think there are enough academic benefits to merit the change while quarantine and community transmission remains a reality. As a teacher, it will reduce the quality of my instruction because of the ongoing online needs this year (which will exist as long as students are quarantined). Most of all, students and teachers are struggling & need consistency. Moving phases wonâ€™t alleviate any concerns, and will only overburden students and teachers during a global crisis. Please please please donâ€™t move to phase 3. If we move at all, it should be back to phase 2.

I wouldn’t mind the extra time to teach our students, however, if we are still told to be out of the building by 4:00, I don’t know how I would efficiently plan and prep for school. I feel that my lessons would be less effective.

Students and families need consistency. Changing schedule again will create chaos again. There is still fear among families and students about COVID and the implication it may have on family members with compromised immune systems.

Whatâ€™s the point of making this huge change with only three months of school left? The children are already used to things they way they are and changing it now would just be a huge adjustment. Parents have already adjusted their schedules to accommodate the shorter school day and it would just be another whole process to readjust again. Things are great the way they are. Do not change them!

I would love to be back in school full time. It would be great for the students!

The sooner this happens the better. After spring break or later in April is futile. We need extra time, yesterday, to prepare for end of year testing. Later in April is too late… as the testing time is already upon us.

“It has been a rough year for students and teachers. I think we should just wait till next year to return to normal. Many high school students work to support income of their families and students with special needs such as autism will have a hard time adjusting to a new schedule again.”

As a teacher I am still expected to provide online curriculum for students doing home study and needing to quarantine. Since I have not used Canvas in the past, I am spending a lot of time transferring information, presentations, assignments, etc… to Canvas. Since returning to school on Fridays, I am spending hours of my own time at home working on these things in addition to my prep periods and time after school. I think it is unfair to give even less time for teachers to prepare for online curriculum. Furthermore, I feel that the shorter class times are actually more effective than the longer 75-90 minute classes. Students tap out around 60 minutes and I feel that the shorter class time better meets the needs of the students.

As a teacher I love my students, value their learning, and seek meaningful ways to engage them in the curriculum. However, the amount of change that has happened over this year has been quite overwhelming. I feel like we are finally in a groove and have a schedule that is meaningful and working well. Going full time would just be one more change to have to adjust to for teachers, parents, and students, and it just feels like a lot. Had this been after the second term, it would feel different. But knowing that we are heading into the last term, I donâ€™t see enough reason to change again. I would like the district to just stick with our current plan for the rest of the year. The constant change has been exhausting.

The numbers show a dramatic decrease in COVID. If we continue to wear masks like we have been, what harm is going to come from 2 more hours at school? Letâ€™s get back to normal!

Lunch will be a nightmare. Students will take all 3 or 4 lunch periods and skip class. I’m exhausted of all the changes and still being required to accommodate at home learners for 4 different courses. One student or 20 it’s still the same amount of work. I’m at my breaking point. Leave it alone. Please!

I would love to have my students longer. We need more learning time. We are very careful to wash and sanitize. We always wear masks. We are doing good. More school time would be fabulous!

Too stressful to change phases at this point in the year

Things are trending down, let’s not make it increase. Be Patient

Too much change already this year – leave it where it is until next fall –

Covid numbers may be down but the stress and trauma of students and employees is still high. Nobody is emotionally prepared to go back to full time school.

When we return to full time all schools should have the same early out day just as we are on now. Why does everyone need to have a different day and or time like it was before Covid.

“Moving to Phase 3 completely changes the safety dynamics of in-person school. Lunch at Provo High School will involve 2 lunches with about 800-900 unmasked students within 6 feet of each other for 30-40 minutes every day. This is not safe at all. I do not want my son being exposed in this way and taking home the virus to my other unvaccinated family members, and I don’t want this risk for others in the community either. This change would only increase class time for about 2 months of the year and is not worth the risk. We have adjusted to phase 2.5; please leave us this way as consistency is another important issue. Alpine will remain 4 early-out days a week for the rest of the school year, and we now have 20% more in-class time than they do. Moving to Phase 3 would be a huge change late in the school year with serious safety considerations and a relatively small payoff (essentially 2 months of longer classes). I also question the idea that this will help our most vulnerable students. It is not likely that those who are now not attending or engaging will change because the classes are 30 minutes longer and school goes until 2:15. Please keep us in Phase 2.5 and allow us safety and consistency for the remainder of the year.

Elementary issues are completely different than secondary, and exploring different models for the two groups is appropriate.”

I am concerned about the emotional and behavioral impact of adding the additional time wearing masks. The last 2 hours of school traditionally have been where we see more behavior problems in elementary as students begin acting up out of boredom or tiredness, I worry that might be increased the longer they are required to be in the masks during their day. Otherwise I am all for the increased time for the academic need.

I will support this move but at this point I think keeping it consistent might be the better option. Students have had so much change this year and adding on two hours a day as they head into testing might just be too stressful.

It would not be of any benefit to return to full time at this point. We are finally in some kind of a routine and learning is taking place. We are seeing growth in our students. Disrupting their routines just throws them off. So if we return full time on March 22nd, that gives us about 2 weeks until Spring Break. So we waste precious instruction time getting students used to yet another new routine and then they are off for a week. Then they come back from Spring Break and it will take another week or so to get them going again just in time for end of year assessments. In theory, it may look like they will have more instruction time on paper and therefore students would benefit but that isnâ€™t the reality. This has been an extremely difficult year. Students (even younger children) are feeling the effects of this pandemic. They are healing emotionally from everything just like the rest of us. Behavior problems have escalated because they donâ€™t know how to cope with everything. Instead of changing everything up, we need to leave things they way they are and donâ€™t go full time until the fall. Please. Phase 3 at this point is not the answer.

The all day mask mandate will be too much for everyone involved with this transition. I would be for full days without masks. I cannot support full days and students not being able to breathe freely for the extra two hour time frame. This is unacceptable to ask of our youth and teachers. This barrier is already very difficult to maintain communication with partial days, full days, for most students, would be unbearable in a mask. Students would rather not speak than have to repeat themselves continually so all can hear. This is a true hardship for our youth in Elementary School.

I worry that having lunch will be very difficult for so many students in secondary schools. I am also concerned about the metal welfare of students in secondary schools. We will be asking them to go back to regular school and the stresses associated with it while still not having the freedoms, activities and enjoyable elements of “normal life.”

The mental and emotional health of our students is negatively impacted with them not being able to attend school and interact with their teachers and peers.

Please allow teachers to stay in the building past 4:00 if we move to phase 3.

I work as a kindergarten teacher and the children are very safe at school. Our school follows very strict guidelines on cleaning, masks, and social distancing. The kids need to be in school. We are losing over a third of our teaching time due to the part time status of students attending school.Our students are not where they should be compared to other years. Even an extra hour or two a day would add many minutes of Valuable instruction.

Teachers have shifted their educational models to new and more innovative ways that students are accustomed to. As we transition to full time it will be difficult for teachers to continue rewriting their full curriculum to accommodate this new style. Additionally, feedback from my students is that they are emotionally and mentally not ready for 90 minute classes and the rigor of full-time school.

My students are in full blown mask fatigue. I canâ€™t imagine pushing them to full day without that getting way worse. Ever since Christmas break itâ€™s been a battle. And they arenâ€™t being defiant. Theyâ€™re just tired. Weâ€™re all tired. Weâ€™ve figured out the schedule that we have and it seems like itâ€™s not worth it to push to phase 3 for the last quarter. This time of year is hard enough in a normal year. Also, the extra portion of the day wonâ€™t have para educators available because their hours will have ended, but we canâ€™t hire more at this time of the year. Parents have also figured out their schedules to accommodate an early release time. Finally, the current CDC guidelines are way more strict than what weâ€™re already doing. According to them, we shouldnâ€™t be in school in person. Why would we push past their advice even more? This pandemic isnâ€™t over and relaxing procedures right now could impact being able to have a normal year in fall. Let the entire community get vaccinated and wait just a little longer to ensure that this is squashed instead of jumping the gun now and ruining our progress in the long run.

This is a hard conversation because what works for our school may not apply to other schools. Although I support the transition to Phase 3, at the same I am extremely worried about teachers and staff wellbeing and burnout. I wish we could provide extra support to teachers and staff, taking in consideration all the upcoming testing. For instance, a half day wellness retreat, once a month for this last three months.

Yes but we need to remove the mask mandate as well, especially at the elementary level.

At this point in the school year, it seems odd to go to phase 3 for the Elementary schools. This is the time of the year when kids and parents typically start “checking out”. Sadly, many of the parents and students have already started checking out. I have several students who don’t want to do much of anything anymore. The younger students have had so many schedule changes over these last few months, and it has been really disruptive for them. It’s hard enough keeping them focused and learning right now as it is. It seems like it would be wise to keep things as they are for the rest of the year, and start with the regular time schedule next August.

I would support changing high schools and middle schools to full time if Fridays were designated as work days without class. Even moving to Phase 3 you will still have a number of students opting for the home-study option or needing to quarantine. The amount of work that goes into making class content available for these students is quite a lot and is hard on teachers and students. A 4 day, full class week, allows for increased instruction time while also giving your teachers the time they need to create quality lessons and activities that are worth student’s time. The mental health aspect is also a benefit as stress for both teachers and students goes down. Which, after a particularly stressful year would be beneficial to everyone. The students are old enough to not need babysitting on that Friday, and if there is enough support from the community I would argue that elementary schools should adopt the same schedule.

This year has been exhausting for teachers as we have been expected to recreate and reimagine the way we teach while also feeling the burden of keeping our students and ourselves safe. I would prefer to stay at our modified phase as I donâ€™t see how the benefits outweigh the negative effects and burden of another change.

Due to the cleaning schedule, the teachers and staff have less time to prepare for the next day after school. Extending the school day would only decrease the amount of time they have to prepare before they have to leave so cleaning can be done.

“Teachers are already on burnout mode (some of us have already reached it). By going to “”full”” you put even more stress and pressure on us. Students can and are functioning on the 3/4 system. Just let us finish the year as-is. You started the year saying “”safety is our priority””, but the safety if your teachers isn’t. We. An see that with this type of action. I understand parents want their babysitters back, but for ince think about the mental load and the workload of those ACTUALLY in the classroom.”

My concern is for student stamina. It has been very difficult for the students to transition to a 5 day schedule, and we feel it on Thursday and Friday each week. As it is, they run out of gas towards the end of the shortened day schedule. It is my feeling that if we extend the school day right now, it will be overwhelming to students who are already feeling antsy and worn out this time of year. Disciplinary troubles would increase in response to the lack of stamina (as they have already since adding Fridays). Since adding more time in the school day would only really give us back our specialties, without substantial classroom time, and management concerns would likely increase in class, I don’t feel that extending the schedule would really lead to greater student learning in the school day. I think that the students will be best served as we seek to support them within this schedule, remembering that already this is the 3rd schedule they’ve had this year.

“I am grateful to see a survey. As a teacher in PCSD, it would be lovely if teachers of Provo School District received the survey prior to district families. I have received communication through friends from school board members that implies that teachers are part of the current discussions for phase 3. This is broadly untrue.

Throughout this entire covid year, I have felt that the school board does not communicate well with teachers. When I have spoken up with concerns I was told by the Superintendent that I was wrong. However wrong I may be, I want to communicate that teachers do not feel part of the decisions made for them. The surveys are a great start!

I can support the change to phase 3, but I am requesting that teachers receive considerate time for the change. There have been so many abrupt changes made this year. Please consider the work it takes to change the format in the classroom. Two weeks should be given to teachers to prepare for the change to phase 3. All schools should move to phase 3 at the same time. There are huge burdens on families with the disconnect in schedules.”

“While data may be trending in a positive direction, there is much talk that the new variant strains of Covid-19 will start a new wave of the pandemic with a greater transmission rate. There is less known about how well the vaccine works against these new variants. While teachers may be vaccinated, they still go home to loved ones who are not. Many care for elderly parents or have immunocompromised loved ones at home who haven’t had an opportunity to be vaccinated yet.

As a full-time teacher, even at the elementary level, I have students who are absent frequently. While increased time in school may benefit students who can attend, getting rid of the early out days would eliminate my ability to work with my absent students – both in live Zoom sessions and in creating online instruction.

My school also does not have the support staff necessary to effectively utilize a full-day model as we have in the past. Not only do we not have enough staff, many staff continue to resign leaving us shorthanded.

Additionally, wearing masks all day is very difficult for both students and teachers. I am personally pro-mask and never whine about wearing one. However, having to teach and project through a mask all day is extremely taxing on my voice and lungs.

Finally, teachers have already been asked to make many changes this year. Every time we finally get the hang of one routine, it changes. Please let us continue working with some level of stability the rest of the year.”

If the cases are going down and there are ways to keep all students (and especially their older family members) safe, I think that going back in person would be beneficial to the students.

I appreciate the caution the school district has taken during the pandemic. There was no way any of us couldâ€™ve known what was to come. I not a nurse, a doctor or an epidemiologist, but I am an educator. As an educator in my elementary school, I have not seen a high transmission rate. My biggest worry at the beginning of the year was for teachers. With everyone being given the vaccine whoâ€™s wanted it, with transmission rates lowering and with a plan to have everyone vaccinated by May (thatâ€™s what I just heard on the radio), I believe that it is time to transition to full time.

There is so little school year left, it is not worth the adjustment and chaos. I think we should finish the year as is.

I feel like this could be a really difficult transition. With masks and social distancing still in place, I think the logistics of going full-time are great. Just one example being lunch, our school eats in 20-minute rotations based on grade level. Our first graders are eating at 11 am, our 6th graders at 12:40 pm. We only have one grade level eating and one grade level playing on the playground at a time. I can’t see being able to push lunch until later, given how late our 6th grade eats. This puts first graders in an extremely long day after lunch. Also wearing a mask all day is tough. I would encourage those making the decision to wear a mask from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm five days a week to see how hard this will be for our students. We usually have specials during school hours to give the teachers their contracted planning time. This has not been feasible with social distancing requirements, but teachers have had early out time to plan, prepare, and PLC, for which we are extremely grateful. Returning schools to full-time will require that the district figure out how to give the teachers their contracted planning and preparation time when social distancing and sanitizing has made this not possible up until now in the elementary school setting.

“We have jerked our kids around so much this year. They are exhausted. Adding two more hours to their school schedule, on top of the emotional stress they are experiencing this year, will do more harm than good at this point. This will require them (at least in secondary schools) to learn yet another bell schedule, and to get used to working/learning/sitting for eight hours as opposed to five. They are one hundred percent capable of this, but I don’t know that the benefit outweighs the cost at this point. These kids have been pushed to the brink in just about every way this year, let’s give them some consistency for their last term, and then next year we can add those two hours back.

Also, teachers are burning out. We are exhausted. We have little planning time to do the large amount of work we are being asked to do this year. This work load has not changed between phases, but the amount of prep time has continually decreased.This has increased the amount of hours worked at home, which will only continue if we lose more of our prep time. Just like our students, teachers need consistency and support to finish out this emotionally challenging year.”

“Things are going smoothly now. Teachers have adjusted our pacing for the current phase. There will be minimal benefit of going full time at this point. It seems illogical to go to phase 3 without the benefits of full time school. Will we be allowed to have full school assemblies? Full school dances? Full capacity sporting events? Teams allowed to travel? You cannot pick and choose what is safe and what isnâ€™t. If everything is not going to be allowed, then we should stay at 2.5.

What would be done about lunches? Is it now safe to have 2000 kids with masks off eating with no social distancing?

Are you going to disrupt schedules more by having multiple lunches?

There are too many moving pieces to justify going full time. Letâ€™s just shoot for a normal start in the fall and be happy”

Besides being a logistical nightmare, I’m not quiet sure I see any benefits to the idea. The only positive I see is that it gives us more time with the students to teach them the standards, but that is hardly helpful at the end of March. We will be doing state testing in April and if the students haven’t recieved the instruction necessary by March 22, they will not receive it in time for testing. Beyond that, teachers have been building blended learning curriculum that can not be changed on the turn of a dime. We have been planning for the scenario we are in, and it would be more beneficial for future knowledge and data collection that we finished out the year as we planned.

“I think the more time kids can spend in school, the better.

However, expecting teachers to teach all day and still put full a curriculum online for students who stay home is unrealistic. We just can’t do that and give the students a quality education at the same time.

Also, how is lunch supposed to work?”

Transitioning to full time at this point would disrupt the rhythm weâ€™ve established and would be detrimental to the students at this point. Continue with phase 2.5 to finish this year.

We should resume school to full time but have all school on a standardized district early out day or late start day. It makes no sense that everyone school level has a different weekly late start or early out time and day. The last 6.5 months shows a district standardized early release works perfectly fine, this would be an opportune time to keep the uniformity going across the district.

I think that moving to full time right before Spring Break will be tough for students and teachers, and will be a burden. It will also increase the already increasing misbehaviors. Full time might be more feasible after spring break.

“If we transition it has to be at term break or not at all this year. What we are doing is working so I think that not changing would be best. Honestly, we should keep the shortened days around permanently or do 4 longer days.”

As a teacher, I have three concerns with the shift to full day. 1. I still have home study students, both those who have been home study all year and students who test positive for Covid. This requires a significant time commitment outside of our regular assignment. 2. When will our custodial staff have time for deep cleaning. In our department, several teachers have opted to not receive the vaccine because they have immune issues and are afraid. Regardless off the validity of their concern, I would hope we would still maintain our deep cleaning procedures for our students and teachers. This takes time. 3. I am still concerned about the safety of high schoolers and lunch with Covid. Will they be transmitting to each other more and then the community if lunch is held during school hours? They will be in cars and in close quarters more. Thank you for requesting feedback!

The school do not have enough full-time employees to handle the social/emotional needs of our students right now, nor do the students have the mental strength for a longer day – you are asking way to much!

As an educator I’m not to worried about any change in schedule, but I worry about students. They are just getting in the rhythm of phase 2.5. Many are still taking advantage of one- on- one time in the afternoons to get on top and stay on top after the difficult transition to blended learning. Giving them one more change that takes away the individual component that so many rely on right now would be hard.

I am also a parent of a student who attends PCSD schools. The only reason I say no is that since we have made it this far in the year I’d rather just finish up the year and then start the new year back to normal rather than have yet another scheduling adjustment. I understand the push to get everything back to normal, but I think it is more prudent to finish this year as is to give our communities the time they need to get fully vaccinated.

As a teacher it has been really helpful to have the afternoons for planning especially since a lot of the planning time got cut short during the day, having the end of the day has also given me an opportunity to make parent calls and talk to my team. Another reason why I donâ€™t think going to phase 3 is good is because students have been very low on stamina this year and itâ€™s been hard to keep them engaged, even in this shorten schedule so I canâ€™t image trying to teach them all day. I think for myself and students we have gotten used to the short day schedule and have made it work. Extending the day to phase 3 would make it harder to rearrange the schedule, especially for specialty teachers and also having enough aides to cover the rest of the day.

It’s very difficult to make that transition when you take into account that we only have a few months left of school. Once full day is in place, it’s only going to add additional things (specialties) on to the students when they are trying to get ready for end of the year testing. Making these kinds of changes before testing would only increase the stress and anxiety that many of our students are already facing.

Please consider waiting until after spring break!

I think this will really hurt my students who get quarantined or who get sick and have to stay home. I have already seen this happen ever since Fridays were taken away. I no longer have time to make videos for my students and they struggle getting caught up when they get back. Iâ€™ve tried making videos and keeping on top of that but Iâ€™m burned out and I know I am not the only one. If I wasnâ€™t worried about getting students caught up all the time (and not from a single class period but from multiple) it wouldnâ€™t be a big deal. However, my home study students, though temporary, would hurt the most from this.

With two more months of school left why open up full-time? The numbers maybe going down but Covid still exists. Why not consider operating full time next school year 2021-2022. Covid has already caused parents and students along with PCSD staff members to rearrange schedules. I feel this is only going to add more stress especially to parents.

My only concern is the amount of time teachers and students will be expected to wear masks. It is hard now with a shortened day. I also worry that there will not be time to clean the building properly, since teachers will have to stay later to be prepared for the next day.

“Utah County is still in High Transmission as a county. Until this changes, going back full time should not be discussed.

There should be no distinctions between schools, i.e. if one level goes back then everyone goes back.

Wearing masks full time is not easy and adding 2 more hours a day as Spring is a terrible idea.”

I think at 12 the kids really do loose focus

Students will be stressed returning to a longer day especially for summative testing. The last two periods will not be productive when they are use to getting out early.

“The district asked for a blended learning model and going full time with the students limits my ability to sustain this model. If we wait until next year when curriculum is established it may be a better transition.

Also transitioning the kids once again takes away learning time as procedures and protocols must be reestablished after every change, 3-day weekend, holiday etc. the kids think things are running smoothly and most so not want another change.

I talked to my students and my low achievers are more willing to come for the shorter day while my high achievers like the extra time to do schoolwork and have a little breathing time in between extra curricular activities.

I feel like my voice is not heard and what will be done will be done without much regard anyway, but as far as I am concerned DO NOT impose one more change to these kids. They are barely hanging on and it is true that there are many with mental health issues due to so much uncertainty and change.”

With the amount of work that I STILL do in making my curriculum be available online to my STIILL AT HOME students or my quarantine students, I have already very much missed the Fridays that we had to prepare. If the district can send us back to “normal” schedule, then that means that teachers should not be expected to do ANYthing extra online that we would normally not need to do. In that case, we will not need to do all that we have on Canvas, or on the many other platforms/ programs that we have been using to not only survive this year, but to make this year equitable to those at home… right? If kids are all back 5 days a week, then it should just be business as “usual” or what used to be usual.

If we return to full time classes, the requirement that teachers maintain online classrooms and perform grading for online assignments needs to be removed. There is not time to do both. As it is, many secondary teachers are really struggling right now due to the lack of prep time for digital resources. Most of us did it not have digital curriculums going into Covid, and are re-creating all of our materials for both in person, and on line contact with students. Most of us are overwhelmed. Most of us are already burned out. The only thing getting us through this is the fact that we have a couple of hours in the afternoon to pull ourselves together. If we’re saying schools are safe for everyone, then students who aren’t practicing safe behaviors and contact Covid outside of school should not be our problem to deal with.

I think Mask Fatigue may be an issue. We may want to consider some options for kids to safely go outside/somewhere occasionally during the day to not where the mask. (maybe longer class transitions to step outside for secondary schools, and maybe an extra recess for elementary kids).

It would be beneficial for students to return to full time school as soon as possible. The extra hours of instruction would help support students in their educational endeavors. Students who need extra help would have the opportunity to receive the added assistance they otherwise would not get.

Wearing a mask for a full day makes it challenging to focus. I believe we need to be able to be mask-free to be back full time.

We still have so many students working online due to illness or quarantine. When we would serve them? When would the building get cleaned? I don’t understand the rush.

I would prefer that students be allowed to finish this year with the current schedule, they have adapted enough.

As an employee, I don’t like having to leave school by 4:00 every day. I teach special education and it would be impossible to hold IEP meetings with parents after school and be out of the buildings by 4pm each day.

I think it is time to try and get some normalcy in our life. These students need to get more education and the sooner we can get back full-time the better.

“It will be impossible to still spread out lunch schedules, and stay all day. We eat lunch at 10:45, we cannot make it a full day with that early lunch.

Also, the deadline to be out of the building by 4:00 is killing teachers already, if we teach all day, that deadline HAS to be extended. We need to have access to or classroom to be fully prepared.”

“As a result of covid, many students have adjusted to this schedule and found work to support their families that start earlier in the day than during non-covid years. Other students have gotten used to the 7:30am-12:05pm schedule for extracurricular activities as well.

In the classroom, students have felt that there is no time wasted in learning because of the 65-minute classes vs 1 hr 30 min classes. Many teachers have commented with the same regard with both the teaching and learning are focused during class time.

Asking both students and teachers to adjust yet again during the 4th term is disruptive with constant changes we’ve asked them to do up to this point (i.e. Canvas, Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 2.5, testing to play at 6am every two weeks, adjusting to covid restrictions and changes to participate as spectators in activities, recording their competitions, moving classrooms to portables and other areas in the middle of the year, etc.)”

I don’t understand what the goal of doing this is. If it is to get kids in seats that goal is not going to happen. The students and parents are in the mindset that missing school is fine. As a teacher my office hours is used catching up students who were out of school. I don’t see how this will be possible if I am teaching full days, but students will still have the need for me to catch them up. If I am spending my 30 minutes of after school contract time doing this when can I prep my lessons and countine to make them available online and interact with students online, while teaching full day in thr classroom. Also the students deserve some consistency to finish out the year. 2 and an half months of school is not enough time to be affect. Not to mention fourth term is focused on reviewing and take state test. Changing the schedule is going to affect the students performance. The students have already established a routine that works for them and is showing better results at school.

“I have talked to my students and they are feeling burnout and are stressed overall the changes. Another one could be too much for them and myself. We have finally hit a grove and they are learning more in the 2 hours from 1:00-3:30 because they can get individual help. I am able to help those that really need it during that time as well. Things are still too crazy right now in the world and so there is no need to go back to this yet until things reach whatever normal will look like next year. We should stay the same the rest of the year so we don’t have to change back if something happens, as the other districts around us have decided. In addition with cleaning practices, planning to help those that will still need our online help because of the increased numbers who will still be absent, will make it difficult and there will be no time for the janitorial staff to do the proper job. Something will have to give. We can’t stay while they clean and we will absolutely need to stay because we will need to plan still.”

I would be supportive of the transition. Do I think it is the best option right now? That I don’t know. Consistency, is key. I really believe that if schools are in Phase 3, then masks will start to come off. If students are in school full time, then you also have to have school assemblies, and school dances. I want to have more instructional time, especially with my Advanced Placement classes. But I don; know if Phase 3 is the answer.

Please! No more changes until next school year, the mental health and challenges the students are dealing with is something that we should take into consideration.

Trying to teach a full day with the restrictions placed on us (masks, desks spread apart, no students together on the rug, smaller groups for lunch/shorter lunch etc.) is very unrealistic! Our job as teachers is so much harder with the restrictions. The students also struggle sitting in their desk all day without the normal flexible transitions, group work, rug time etc. Please donâ€™t ask this of us until the restrictions have been removed!

“This is not a good time to be rearranging the current schedules that the children have grown accustomed to for most of the school year. Adding to the current levels of work and stress for children, parents, and staff is not going to help the children learn anything any faster than the current rate. This is also 2 weeks prior to Spring Break which EVERYONE needs! The proposed change would not be as beneficial as everyone seems to think. Heaven forbid there is a new wave of new cases and we have to revert back to either Phases 1 or 2. Trying to meet the ‘way’ it has always been is not a logical reason to change the current schedule.”

I really hope at some point soon we will also be able to not use the masks or at least staff not have to wear while outside. I have students in the high school and middle school and I dont think all these changes have been good for them I think leave them where the are finish out this year and next year bring them back full time. No of this has been good on these kids mental health all the back and forth. Let them stay the half days to finish out this year. I feel we need to be more focused on their mental health then we have been and having so much back and forth really isn’t beneficial to them. Let’s start fresh next year.

“There are many factors. Students in the elementary level do not have the stamina for this right now. I know we will have to eventually go back to a normal schedule but not now. Do it next Fall where students and teachers can prepare. Also some teachers still have home study students. In order to help them and still help the students in the classroom that is asking a lot. The extra prep time the teachers have from 1:40-3:50 is beneficial for them to be able to help home study students and help the students in their classroom.”

Please petition for the Utah health order to wear masks be retracted.

“I cannot teach a full day with the constraints and restrictions that are currently in place. I do not want these restrictions to go away either because they keep me and my students safe.

Have you ever tried to teach 1st and 2nd graders when everyone is sitting at their desks, in rows, facing forward, with masks on, for 7 hours a day? Currently, it is extremely difficult doing that for 5 hours a day. I am not using best teaching practices and instructional strategies because I am taking safety seriously. I cannot have my students gathered on the rug because it is not safe. I cannot have my students in table groups because it is not safe. I am giving direct instruction for nearly 100% of the school day. That won’t change if you go to “”full time school.””

What are you hoping to accomplish by extending the day?

If you don’t care about the virus anymore, you don’t care what health experts have to say, the safety of teachers, students, and their families, then just say it.

Tell me you don’t care if we follow safety procedures. Tell that to parents, teachers, and the community at the next board meeting. Make your intentions and feelings explicit. Don’t hide behind “”data””.”

The same thing I told a school board member…teacher’s and students do not have the stamina to go full day. There is a lot more involved going to full day that those who are not classroom teachers or in a school as school admin do not see. They can say they understand, but the small things and the logistics, they truly do not understand what students and teachers face. Sometimes it’s not about what parents want, but what our kids can do and what teachers mentally can do. As a wise cowboy has said, “every good cowboy knows you don’t overwork your best horse” teachers and students of Provo City School Districts are the best herd. Don’t over do it.

Teachers and students have been pulled in all directions. Teachers have lesson plans for the remaining of the year. Students need stability and time to catch up on classes since the pandemic.. please take in account the teachers and students mental stability.

Each year we hit a stretch where we start seeing more student behavior concerns. We are currently in the middle of that stretch. Extending school days to even longer to move forward as â€œnormalâ€ even though life isnâ€™t normal inside or outside the classroom, makes it really difficult on not only the teachers, but the students as well. With the utmost respect, I plead that we will prioritize health and sanity over moving forward trying to make school days â€œnormal.â€

At the last board meeting there was a brief discussion about how the board was worried about the students mental health. Now more than ever this must be considered and addressed. The amount of switching between schedules and changes we have put through them is not helping. Right now our students need consistency and support instead of one more change and stress during the last quarter of school. Especially during end of year testing. Dates have been set for the testing schedule and switching to phase 3 will cause a massive headache for teachers and students. This will also cause schools to make another significant change to lunch schedules. I literally just overheard a conversation from some of my middle school students that they donâ€™t want anymore change. They need things to stay stable and left how it is. I realize the district and some parents are anxious for this next phase. But right now there are more important things. Please think about the mental health of your students and teachers. Enough is enough. We need stability, support and understanding, not another shift.

Switching to full-time school now feels like an incredibly thoughtless move. Students and teachers have their routines firmly in place now and asking them to completely change their routines for just the next couple months is asking too much.

You are negatively impacting students with disabilities in terms of their stability and behavior with such a decision. Students with autism in particular do not adapt well to change, and it has been hard for my students with significant cognitive disabilities to adapt to each phase change this school year. It makes no sense whatsoever to make a new change with only a single term of school left. I have had increased burnout and physical aggression with each change for the students in my classroom. In addition, blended learning is new to most teachers, which requires substantial hours to plan, create, and implement. Teachers need the additional time we currently have to avoid increased burnout. Please do not drive even more teachers away from this profession and district by making this change. Look forward to making changes for the next school year and let us maintain what we have for the remaining days of school.

“Let’s just keep it the way we are right now and when we start up in August go back to our normal schedule. I’m saying that both as an Employee and parent that has kids going to school in this district. Thank You”

I am supportive of transitioning to full time as long as there are metrics in place to transition back to earlier phases in the event of spiking numbers. I just don’t want to get complacent.

I donâ€™t believe moving to phase 3 is a good idea this year. Masks are already very hard for the students to wear in the shortened days. They are in a good routine now. Letâ€™s finally keep something consistent until the end of the year.

At this point in the year, with 3 months left of the school year, it seems like we should just finish out with the 1/2 schedule for 5 days a week, and then start the next school year with full time 5 days a week.

We are still needing to adjust lessons for this year due to either home study students (it always is said this will go away but clearly it won’t) or because we are behind in scope and sequence and so adjustments are taking time. I can’t imagine my life if those two prep hours are taken. It would be a stressful mess.

We’ve already changed so much this year. Let’s finish out the year with the shortened day. This has been hard enough on all of us, students included. Let’s keep some kind of consistency to finish out the year. Thank you.

I feel that the children need to have a more constant schedule right now which means not making changes to the school schedule for the remainder of this school year. I think that we are doing better but families still feel the stress of getting the virus. Also, as families are unable to Isolate, the kids will be missing so much more school. Up to 20 days of regular school days will provide so much more to fall behind on.

My concern for the teachers and meeting the needs of all students when we go to full time. I know several teachers that meet with high risk students in the afternoon to help teach them and this would take away that time. I am concerned with how to keep up with canvas and needs of the students that have to quarantine when we go to full time as well. The work load on the teachers will not go down it will only increase and this work load for this year is already very demanding. We also need to pick a plan and stick with it for our students to have structure, let’s stop changing things every few weeks. Secondary schools covid spreads easier and full days we could see more switching back and forth between phases.

Usually I teach at Provo High. This year I’m at eSchool. I am concerned about lunch time. Provo High already had issues with having enough room with two lunch periods. How will students safely eat lunch without masks in tight quarters? It seems like a very bad idea to me.

I think it’s premature to think COVID is on its way out. I hope it is, but we’ve had low numbers like this before and then seen huge spikes. The extra time for our custodial crew to sanitize the school is more important than adding 1.5 hours onto the students’ day. Also, it takes time for the kids to adjust to longer hours, and you’re proposing to make this change just before end-of-the-year testing. Some of the younger grades are going to have a very difficult time getting used to this change. Doing this for the last term of the year when families are still experiencing COVID infections, joblessness, hunger, etc. is not a wise choice.

I think that the kids are doing fine with school as it is. Why increase the risk now when we are so close to the end of the year?

I do not think it would be good to go into Phase 3 for any of the schools at this time. I think it would be too hard and stressful for both students and teachers. With the remaining time left in the school year, I feel very strongly that we should finish out the school year with the same schedule we are now following and wait until the following school year to transition back to our regular school schedule.

How are middle and high schools going to socially distance lunch? This makes me feel very unsafe and concerned for student safety. Many students have high risk family and already feel unsafe coming to school- this is going to make that situation worse. And more prep time will be taken away from teachers- again- even though I still have to accommodate for home study students. Most of the country isnâ€™t even in face to face school yet- please stop ignoring CDC guidelines because some parents are vocal about their personal wants that fly in the face of common sense and science.

No comment

I believe it is too early to do school full time as if nothing serious live COVID is happening.

Not all schools should transition to phase 3, specific schools should transition on a case by case basis.

As a high school teacher the inconsistency with the kids had already been a nightmare. Many have planned work schedules , teachers have made plans to finish the year, and I finally feel like we are in a rhythm. I understanding wanting more time for elementary, but high school is in a routine that is productive for the kids and teachers. This would be very disruptive.

Please just put us to full time so we can get on with our lives and quit hearing from you every two weeks.

I would prefer to start phase 3 after spring break. It just seems like a more natural time. My child is currently involved in a lot of after school activities since he has been attending school only until 1:45. We would need to adjust our schedules and adapt to attending school full time.

The students have experienced so many changes this year and each change at the secondary level has been pretty intrusive. As much as I would love to be open, I don’t know if one term with a couple of hours a day is going to make a huge difference.

Students & teachers are exhausted from all of the changes this year. Teachers have been yanked around through phases and changes for the past 12 months and they are tired. I’ve been able to see teachers try and adapt to the ever changing phases and needs throughout this pandemic. However, I have seen that they are tired from the changes and need some consistency. This pandemic has taken a toll on students, too, with the constant changes. I would think that a move to Phase 3 would be beneficial if it was certain that it would be the final change, but what we have learned in 2020 and 2021 is that nothing is certain in a global pandemic. According to Covid-19 researchers (let’s listen to professionals here!), life should look a little more normal for next school year so let’s hold off just a little longer and look forward to the coming year of more normalcy for our students and teachers.

The move to full days only adds 5 min per class period in secondary schools and maybe a specialties class and 30 min in elementary levels. This is not a lot of added time, however the change would add a lot of added chaos including challenges to family schedules, lunch schedules, behavior issues, 29 hour employees, teachers and home study students without adding a lot of benefit for the last quarter. The last quarter is only a couple weeks of review, testing and finishing out the year and the time for core instruction has passed. Just finish out the year with the schedule as is and less chaos and changes for an already chaotic year.

My only thoughts are that I would hate to go back full time, have the numbers increase at a fast rate and risk us having to change the schedule again back to Phase 2. In my mind it seems to make the most sense to remain at Phase 2 for the remainder of the year and continue with Phase 3 beginning in the fall

I am concerned about students’ and teachers’ stamina and energy levels with a move to Phase 3. March 22 is right around the time when students will begin state testing, which is exhausting as it is. After 3 terms of having early-out days, I worry about students being able to make it through a full day without becoming tired and checked out of their classes at the end of the day. Moving to Phase 3 also takes away 10 hours of prep time for teachers without removing any of the responsibilities we still have to put content online, prepare lessons in a blended learning environment, finish required professional development hours, etc.

I feel we are good where we are. I think it would be best to transition to full time next school year. We should finish the school year as it is. The virus is still around and there are still risks.

Please lets finish off the year with the same current schedule, so much change is VERY difficult for some students and can make the rest of the year a nightmare for kids that struggle mentally with the already changing schedules. PLEASE consider those with social or mental disorders that could be very affected by ANOTHER change.

I feel with most all teachers and staff vaccinated and Utah’s numbers decreasing, now is the time to get back to normal.

I donâ€™t agree with transitioning to phase 3 for the rest of the year!! Letâ€™s stay the course and plan for next year! Too much inconsistency!

None

“There’s been too much movement of phases. I think now that students are back in school everyday, the district should just leave it in Phase 2 until the end of the year. People are finally in a rhythm and that stability is good for students and staff. I support a fresh start to next school year with a full schedule at that time.”

I only really have an opinion about elementary schools, as that is where I teach, I don’t pretend to understand the issues middle schools and high schools are dealing with or what kind of problems or solutions this would cause, but I had to give an answers so I said yes I was supportive because I couldn’t leave it blank.

This is a terrible idea. The work load this year has already been devastating. Losing the preparation time previously provided on Fridays was detrimental to employees. Now, the idea of taking away preparation time by getting rid of the shortened schedule would be absolutely absurd.

I think high schools need to be more aware of the situation first.

any changes should be system wide to avoid logistical issues with supporting services such as school lunch, transportation, bell schedules etc.

We are asking teachers for a lot. If we are expected to still be out of the building by 4pm for cleaning, that leaves us no classroom time to get ready. I also think itâ€™s not a good plan to change to full time when we only have three months left. We are finally in some sort of a routine, it would be nice to not have to change our schedules yet again.

“The data is showing that what we are doing is working, not that Covid 19 is any less potent.

Covid is still just as real as before, we simply are doing a better job containing it. Why would you respond to confirmation that our efforts are effective by then reducing those efforts?”

As a 2nd grade teacher, please no!

I do feel safe at my work place and I think our staff do a great job keeping them safe to support f/t schedules.

Give teachers a break!!! Finish out the year as is.

It is very difficult to wear a mask all day, every day. This is hard on the children as well as the teachers. We are having to put in a lot of effort to communicate with students. Please…Wait to go all day until we do not need masks.

I am all for getting kids back in school full time if the amount of homework will get less. I think the kids get it done better if they are doing it in class.

I donâ€™t want to change schedules again over and over

Please move to phase 3

If we are still going to be require to put lesson online on canvas, itâ€™s going to be very hard to find the time to do that from 2:10 to 3:30.

none

Letâ€™s do this!

I personally feel that with all the varying changes this year last year, it isnâ€™t time to go back to regular school. I believe we should just finish off the year as is. My middle Schooler and highschoolers have been extra stressed and mentally struggling the last few months and I feel it would push them past a breaking point. I think itâ€™s too long for elementary kids and there teachers to deal with masks and social distancing.

I would prefer to switch the schedule after Spring Break.

None

School will be out for summer in a couple months, I would leave things how they are. Lots of changes this year, I wouldnâ€™t change again.

The early out day is so much better. Kids aren’t as bored, and teachers have enough time to prepare and plan

Although Covid numbers are decreasing, transmission rates continue to be high in our county. High school students do not do a very good job with social distancing when not in the classroom. Lunch periods will provide prolonged exposure and possible spread of Covid. I believe it is better to finish out the year with the system we have in place, which is working well for teachers and students.

I think that the students and teachers have been protected pretty well so far and I think the kids need more time in class to become more resilient and build their work ethic back up.

Ditch the mask. It doesn’t work if people are sitting next to each other for an hour. Madness needs to end. Stop it already. Your are abusing kids and your employees with these precautions.

Don’t make IHS go back to phase 3 until next year. I truly don’t believe more seat time is going to be helpful this year.

It is harder as an elementary teacher to keep up with the masks for the kids and the social distancing, the kids get tired of having to wear the mask with the time we are coming to school already

This is too soon.

Consistency is what students and teachers need- with one term to go letâ€™s finish out the year in 2.5

Just finish the school year and start normal next fall.

No comment necessary

I think this is great

Only if schools will be able to allow students to have a normal specialties schedule.

Teachers need warning before change is made

Honestly am barely getting through the day, being there until 3:20 would kill me.

Phase 3 for sure.

0 Shares

April 16, 2024: Construction Update on Timpview High, Shoreline Middle, and Wasatch Elementary

April 18th, 2024

During the April 16 Board Meeting, the school board received an updated report of the ongoing...

Provo High Dance Company and AP Art Students’ Film, “The Star,” Selected for Utah Dance Film Festival

April 16th, 2024

Last term, Provo High School's Dance Company and AP Art students collaborated to create their...

Employment Vacancies: April 15, 2024

April 15th, 2024

March 28, 2024 Inst Asst 3/Extra Curricular—–Timpview High Social Worker—–Student...