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Verde Magazine

Verde Magazine

Verde Magazine

District admins propose online and in-person learning for fall

District+admins+propose+online+and+in-person+learning+for+fall

Editors’ note: This story’s title was changed from “District admins propose transition to online and in-person learning for fall” to “District admins propose online and in-person learning for fall” after publication for further clarity. The drafted schedule’s citation previously attributed to Midpen Media Center has been edited to attribute PAUSD to accurately reflect the source of the image. All story corrections can be found under the ‘Corrected Stories’ tab.


Palo Alto Unified School District administrators have suggested plans for remote online and in-person learning for secondary schools for the fall semester of 2020.

During the school board meeting tonight, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education Services Sharon Ofek presented a draft of the bell schedule for the 2020 fall semester, which would apply to all PAUSD high schools and middle schools. The schedule proposes splitting the student body into two groups who would attend in-person classes twice a week, rotating through a seven period block schedule. The students would participate in remote learning on the other three days. With the seven period schedule, students would only attend one session of each class per week in person. School for all students would operate from 8:30 a.m. to 3:40 p.m. from Monday to Thursday.

DRAFTED SCHEDULE — The district’s schedule for PAUSD secondary schools would split the student body into two groups, having each group attend on-campus classes for two days of the week and distance learn for the remaining three days. The drafted schedule is not confirmed and is subject to change. Image: PAUSD

According to Superintendent Don Austin, live streaming classes for students participating in virtual learning is being considered, but there are student protection rules to work around.

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Plans for the schedule for elementary schools in the district have not been announced. 

“For elementary we thought it was better to create the program first and make the schedule around it,” Austin said. 

In addition, plans for social distancing and facial coverings in school have not been made.

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