TACOMA, Wash. — Tacoma Public Schools announced it will be ready to bring students back into the building full-time by the new school year, and the district said they’re confident they’ll be able to keep students safe under current state guidelines.
School faculty are going through the process of figuring out what classroom sizes will look like under state guidelines, which now allow for just three feet of social distance in some circumstances.
Some have wondered what they need to do to prepare their children to go back into the building, such as if COVID-19 vaccinations will be required. But Tacoma Public Schools spokesperson Dan Voelpel said that's not up to the district.
“That will not be a decision of Tacoma Public Schools,” said Voelpel. “That will be a decision of the state of Washington on behalf of all schools in Washington, one way or the other. We don’t know how that will go… There are certain vaccinations that are required, with a few exceptions allowed, but this one for COVID-19 is currently not a state requirement.”
Remote learning during the pandemic has given Tacoma Public Schools a chance to make some much needed improvements to the district's resources prior to returning to the traditional, in-person learning.
“Before the pandemic, Tacoma Public Schools was not a district that had one device, one laptop for every student. But now we are,” said Voelpel. “Our school board has supported an investment that we’ve been able to make to make sure every student has a device and that will continue after the pandemic is over.”
Educators are hoping the lessons learned during the pandemic aren’t forgotten, and that student-focused teaching can continue to be used.
“We don’t want to go back to what we had because not everything we had was great,” said Shannon Ergun, president of the Tacoma Education Association. “We’ve done a lot of learning with the tools and resources and the activities that we have been able to do during COVID, and I hope that we take those pieces that have worked forward with us into a full classroom experience.”
Families who do not want their children to return to in-person learning will have an option to enroll in an online program, called Tacoma Online, to learn more information visit the Tacoma Public Schools' website here.