Jacksonville school superintendent Steve Ptacek is glad public health and the state school board have relaxed classroom COVID instruction guidelines.
Ptacek says the announcement was made yesterday afternoon in light of consistently low COVID numbers statewide.
Ptacek says the first piece of good news is the ability to increase classroom capacity.
He says the change opens up the chance for PE classes and lunch periods.
Ptacek says the guidelines also reduce the distance between students in some instances.
The state now says students social distancing with masks on has been moved from 6 feet to 3 feet.
And, he says they have taken out the mandate for schools to offer on line remote learning for certain students, which he described as really, big, huge.
Ptacek says this could allow the school district to require in classroom learning, and take away remote learning, unless there is a medical reason.
Ptacek says guidelines could change again before next school year, which could produce a return to normal for the 2021-22 school year.
Ptacek says the new changes could be more easily adapted for the grade schools, than at the high school for the rest of this year, because bus transportation would need to be dramatically changed. But, he says that’s a board decision that will be made next month.