On March 13, 2020, President Donald J. Trump declared a National Emergency for the COVID-19 virus and the Travis Unified School District closed the doors to their schools. Now after many months of being quarantined at home and having started distance learning, there is a chance students at Vanden high school may be able to go back.

A plan was proposed called a Hybrid schedule. Students would start to go to school once a week in person, then spend the rest of the school week at home doing online learning. The proposal of this new schedule has sparked mixed emotions among the attending students.

In December of 2020, the Travis Unified Governing Board met to discuss the proposal of a Hybrid Schedule. The new schedule would start for secondary schools on March 29, 2021, if Solano County has stayed in the Red Tier for two consecutive weeks otherwise that date may be changed. Elena Fiol, a freshmen student at Vanden Highschool said, “…I’d rather just not go at all if I’m just gonna go for a day or two…” when sharing her views about online school versus the hybrid schedule.

Another student said, “ I would rather do hybrid learning because I can’t handle being at home on the computer all day anymore.” Timia Dumandan, a freshmen student at Vanden said that even with all the precautions that would be in place at Vanden there is “still a risk” for getting COVID-19 if students were to go back.

The Hybrid schedule for Vanden High School would work by starting with 25% of the school week, excluding shortened Wednesdays which have shorter classes, with students going to a physical classroom. The rest of that school week would have students spent at home doing distance learning. After two weeks of the 25% plan being successful, students would start to go in planned groups to school two days a week on Monday and Tuesday, and others on Thursday and Friday.

Going back to school with the Hybrid Schedule has raised some questions about the safety of it all. In the same December 2020 update by TUSD, reassurances about the safety of going back to the physical classroom were in place. Masks, distancing, handwashing, enhanced cleaning, wellness self-checks, enhanced ventilation, contact tracing isolation, and cohorts were all on the list of the precautions and safety measures that would take place.

In a survey by TUSD asking parents/guardians of students when they would want to send their kids back to school one parent said, “My children need to get back into school more for their mental health than the academics.” If students were sent back to school with the Hybrid Schedule they would go once a week in the beginning, with a social distancing from friends and other students.

Another anonymous parent/guardian said, “ Should we go back to red or above I would like my kids to be back in school. However, this is dependent on the district having all the appropriate safety precautions in place.” Certain COVID-19 restrictions were put into the following tier depending on the number of cases, the Red Tier being substantial cases and can refer to as tier two. As said before, there will be many precautions taken in place for the safety of students and staff members at Vanden. Timia Dumandan, a student at Vanden said, “ I would like to experience freshman year at school a little bit, but I’m not sure I would risk going back.”

When thinking about what she would miss most from distance learning Elena Fiol said, “ Not having to wake up at 6 am to go to school. ” Another student, named Hazyl Gray said, “ I would miss waking up 10 minutes before school and not having to change out of my pajamas .” There are always the pros and cons with things such as this.

No one can say for sure if students at Vanden will be able to go back to the physical classroom in March. But there is a plan in place whether students go back or not. Some students have been struggling with Online learning, but nobody for sure knows if doing Hybrid Schedule will ease some of that struggle away or just add more. For now, students will just have to wait and see what will come in the future.