Families, Teachers Worry AP Classes May Not Be Online

FARMINGNTON, Utah – Teachers across the Davis School District spent much of the summer preparing for a hybrid plan, and now they’re having to quickly change gears to having full class-sizes, four days a week.

That change happens next week for elementary schools, and the week after for secondary schools.

One teacher, who does not want to be identified because she works for the Davis School District, says she has some colleagues who will have as many as 43 students in a classroom at a time.

She worries the crowds will look more like they did before the pandemic.

She also said many students and teachers were just hitting their stride with the hybrid plan, and now having to quickly change to a more traditional schedule is making for a very heavy workload.

“These times are not normal, and this is unprecedented, and the District, they should have at least brought teachers to the table in the decision-making process,” she said.

Davis School District has had over 150 confirmed COVID-19 cases since school started. Currently, there are almost 80 students and faculty quarantined.

Online-only is supposed to be an option for families worried about the hybrid plan going away for now.

However, families with kids in AP and concurrent enrollment classes are learning that not all of those classes will be available online.

They’re worried they’ll have to choose between dropping those classes, or sending their kids to school four days a week. Parents, like Melissa Noble, liked the hybrid plan because she is high-risk if she got COVID. She has a sophomore at Viewmont High in Bountiful.

“I think I cried in relief, because I was like, ‘Oh, thank goodness they care about us,'” Noble said. “And so when this decision changed, I think I cried in anger.”

Now she could be faced with a difficult decision, because that son takes multiple AP and concurrent enrollment classes. She doesn’t know yet if all of those will be available online.

“He’s a high-achieving kid,” she said. “He works really hard at his schooling, and right now we don’t even know if I have him go online, if he’s going to be able to continue with those classes or not.”

Many families are waiting on the same thing. Mazie Sessions, a Junior at Clearfield High, said she’s not sure she’s willing to give up those kinds of opportunities.

“I value my education over my safety, which should not be a thing. Like I should value my safety more,” she said.

And in part because she has asthma, she is worried about COVID-19. She’s currently quarantined because of being exposed.

“It opened my eyes to it,” she said. “And I do, I sound like I’m more scared than most other of my peers, but I do not want to have to go through the fear of a family member getting it.”

The kind of things teens shouldn’t have to worry about.

“It’s terrible,” Noble said.