DELAWARE, Ohio (WCMH) – Students in the Delaware City School District will remain in a hybrid model of learning through the rest of the school year, a decision the school board made last week.

It’s a decision many families in the city are not happy with, and they took their displeasure to the streets Tuesday.

Parents said they would love if students could return to in-class instruction five days a week, but realize that at this point, that likely won’t happen.

They do want their voices heard and they want to make sure students are back inside classrooms come this fall.

“We don’t want to come off as some angry parent mob here, we just want them to see us,” said parent Kylie Hunt. “Put a face to those emails that keep being submitted and see what we can do about getting to an open dialogue with them.”

Hunt has a third grader and fifth grader, saying it’s been an extremely challenging year.

She was part a group of a few dozen who gathered outside district offices Tuesday calling for a return to full-time, five-day, in-person learning.

“I feel like this decision was solely a board decision, for the most part, without any input of parents, which is unfair,” parent Amy Zoller said.

At last week’s school board meeting, the board decided to keep the district in hybrid learning for the rest of the year. Challenges to returning full time were discussed, and some member said they heard from many families about a return to in-class instruction.

While the parents who protested are disappointed in the decision, they’re also pushing to make sure there’s a plan for 5 days next school year. 

“As far as conversation goes, we have not been able to have a conversation with them and we have questions,” Hunt said.

Delaware City School Board of Education President Frances O’Flaherty said in a statement that several factors went into the decision, explaining a return to five days would force all hybrid students to go in person regardless of how comfortable they or their families feel about that.

The statement goes on to say it is the board’s intention to have full-time, in-person instruction in the fall.

O’Flaherty’s full statement is below:

The Delaware City Schools Board of Education made the decision at the March 2, 2021 meeting to maintain the hybrid model for the remainder of the school year. This was based on many factors and not all of those will be addressed in this statement. Public participation at the meeting was accepted and considered through the usual channels of communication. 

One factor that weighed heavily was that our parents and students had made a choice at mid-year between having 100% on-line instruction or attending school in the hybrid form with limited numbers of students in the building at any one time. For several reasons, students who are currently hybrid would not get the choice to switch into the on-line classes at this point in the year. Hence, a return to 5-day, all-in instruction would force all hybrid students to take in-person classes regardless of their comfort level with that situation. 

Other factors included, but were not limited to, class sizes and schedules that would have required extensive amounts of time to reconfigure, and that would have culminated in disruption of student/teacher connections that have been forged over the course of the year so far. 

It is the Board’s intent at this time to return to full-time in-school instruction in the fall.

Delaware City Schools Board of Education President Frances O’Flaherty