Shaker teachers to handle in-person, remote learners

BELMONT — When teachers in the Shaker Regional School District return to school in less than three weeks, some of their students will be seated right in front of them in the classroom while others will be at home, connected to the school through a computer hookup.

Some 140 students have opted exclusively for remote learning when classes resume Sept. 9, Superintendent Michael Tursi told the Shaker Regional School Board Thursday. That number equates to between 12 and 13 percent of the district’s estimated enrollment of 1,200 students.

The remote learners work out to “a handful of students in each class” in the district’s four schools, he said.

Tursi told the board that teachers would all be returning to the classroom and that face-to-face and remote learners would be their students. The teachers will spend one hour each day working strictly with remote learners — both full-time, and those at home under the district’s hybrid plan.

“We will manage the remote students with teachers doing the face-to-face classes,” Tursi said.

Hybrid learners will be splitting their time between in-school instruction and remote learning, with students coming to school for a full day two days a week and receiving remote instruction the other three days.

All students will be engaged in remote learning on Mondays. Half of the students will attend their respective schools on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and the other half on Thursdays and Fridays.

Most of Thursday’s board meeting was taken up with a review of the reopening plans for the district’s two elementary schools, as well as the middle school and high school. The detailed plans cover procedures, including sanitizing classroom furniture and equipment, lunch breaks, wearing of face masks, social distancing, and daily health monitoring by parents before their children leave for school.

Board Vice Chair Michelle Lewis said while the plans contained a great deal of detail, she said the instructions that pertain to parents and students need to be more user-friendly.

“When I prepare my kid for school, what do I need to think about?” she told the four school principals who were seated in the audience.

The board approved the plans in their present form with the understanding that they will be amended and updated.

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To contact Michael Mortensen, send him an email at

mike@laconiadailysun.com.