INDIANAPOLIS — Walking down the hallway of Homecroft Elementary School in Indianapolis, one would be hard-pressed to not find a child smiling through their mask when peeking into a classroom.
It’s the first day back to in-person learning at Perry Township Schools, after the Marion County Health Department said schools in the county could return to in person learning on Jan. 4.
In the school entrance is a sign with a large drawing of a face mask, which reads: "We can’t mask our Homecroft pride."
"They were getting off the buses pretty quick and finding their friends this morning because this is the best place for them," said Perry Township Schools Superintendent Pat Mapes. "Our students K-5 are all in-person and our kids (in grades) 6-12 are alphabet 'A to L' Monday and Thursday and 'M to Z' on Tuesday and Friday."
He said the "hybrid model still works when you have high schools with 2,200 and 2,400 students. And they had higher contact tracing and positive cases."
"We’ll keep them hybrid and when the county health department gives us the opportunity to bring them back, we’ll bring and until we get a trend 'til after the holiday, we’ll keep them hybrid and when the county gives us the opportunity to bring them back full-time, we’ll move them back into the building as well," Mapes said. "From the beginning we have been following Marion County health guidelines and when they give us the opportunity to have our kids in person, we know that’s the best quality of education and learning they’re going to receive."
While Indianapolis Public Schools and Lawrence Township have decided to remain with virtual learning for now, Mapes said he sees the green light from the Marion County Health Department as a chance to minimize the education gap.
"We do a lot of learning here that is done with each other, so those partnerships and those discussions allow for a deeper understanding of the content and the teachers can walk around and see what the students are doing and if they really understand what they’re doing, so there’s no substitute for in-person learning," Mapes said.
He said some students' grades have taken a downward trend this year and he believes virtual learning can produce a lot of distractions for students and make it harder to focus on school.
"Our number of failures have been up at the high school and middle school, we know that," Mapes said. "Our formative assessment shows we’re six to 11 percent behind where we were this time last year."
Mapes said math grades took the biggest hit.
"We know we have a learning gap there, we’re trying to figure out how to minimize that. Obviously, one of the ways is to come back to school," he said.
The school is offering a hybrid education, in-person learning and said that e-learning will be offered until the end of the year.
"We know we have some kids that are going to remain virtual throughout the whole school year and hopefully those kids can get some normalcy and we can get them vaccines and they can return for the next school year," Mapes said.
Mapes said Perry Township Schools are following the same public health guidelines laid out in August: social distancing, wearing face masks and frequent hand washing, and haven’t changed any of their protocols. 13News observed some of the students removing their masks when sitting in their seats and saw some of the much younger students not socially distancing during their lunch breaks, although most appeared to be following instructions.
Mapes said in-person learning allows teachers to be able to check in with their students, not only on how well they’re grasping the material, but on how they’re coping during these uncertain times.