Increased busing is expected to cost $1.9 million under Harris’ “Hybrid 2.0” plan.
Barrington School District 220 school board members gave thumbs up – literally – to the district’s revised hybrid learning plan that was presented by Superintendent Brian Harris at the meeting Tuesday and sets a date for students to have more days of in-person instruction.
Under the “Hybrid 2.0” plan, families can choose to have their students physically in school buildings starting Jan. 19.
In approving it, board members also acknowledged Harris’s estimate of nearly $2.7 million in additional costs to implement the plan, much of that for bus transportation.
The new hybrid plan (See “D220 to offer families choice to participate in Hybrid or Distance Learning starting Jan. 19”) adds more in-person days for all students, who have already been divided into A and B groups. Middle and high school students were in school buildings two days a week under the current hybrid plan, attending either Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday. The new plan adds Wednesday, and each group would alternate attending on that day..
However, under Hybrid 2.0, elementary school students will be in school every day for two-and-a-half hours, either morning or afternoon. Pre-K students would attend daily for two hours, during morning or afternoon sessions, officials explained.
The extra busing needed to take the pre-K and elementary school students back and forth accounts for a substantial portion of the $2.7 million extra cost of the new hybrid program, officials estimate. In fact, the increased busing is expected to cost. $1.9 million – though one board member suggested a large portion of that cost may eventually be reimbursed by the state.
Total additional costs also include $525,000 for 15 additional certified teachers, $70,000 for four more support staffers and $187,000 for technology infrastructure and additional curriculum materials. Harris and other administrators said they are confident they can hire the additional staff needed to implement the new hybrid plan.
Read the Barrington Courier-Review version of the story here.
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