The start of the 2020-2021 school year will look different from previous years, and to ensure families and staff have time to prepare for the new schedule, Hamilton County Schools is announcing the "Safe Start, Great Start" opening schedule for the first few weeks of the 2020-2021 school year.
As previously announced, Aug. 12-14 will follow a mini A/B cohort schedule to open the school year. These first three instructional days will be followed by two full weeks of the hybrid learning schedule. The weeks of Aug. 17-21 and Aug. 24-28 will follow the A/B cohort schedule, allowing half-capacity with students grouped into an A-cohort or B-cohort to begin the school year. If they haven’t done so already, schools will communicate with families which group their child will be in no later than the end of day Wednesday, Aug. 5. If needed, families should contact individual schools to ensure all siblings will be grouped together on the same schedule, regardless of the school they attend.
The first week is a short week with the A-group attending school in class on Wednesday, Aug. 12, and the B-group participating in remote learning. On Thursday, Aug. 13, the B-group will attend school while the A-group participates in remote learning. Both the A-group and B-group will participate in remote learning from home on Friday, Aug. 14.
The first full week of school, the week of Aug. 17, the A-group will attend school in-class on Monday and Tuesday, and the B group will attend school in-class on Thursday and Friday. Both the A-group and B-group will participate in remote learning from home on Wednesday. The other two days that students are not on campus each week, they will also participate in remote learning. The hybrid learning schedule will be a full five-day school week for all students with two days on campus and three days learning remotely. The second full week, the week of Aug. 24, will follow the same schedule. See the graphic below for a visual representation of the schedule.
The "Safe Start, Great Start" opening schedule is to provide parents and staff the first couple of weeks opening schedule in advance. Starting August 31, we will follow the phased approach and gating criteria outlined in our reentry plan to determine the in-person learning model. If the gating criteria data was the same on Aug. 31 as it is today, we will be in Phase 3 and open for on-campus learning five days a week.
