With Dakota county covid cases on the rise, District 196 has decided to move to 100% distance learning but District 196 has proven over the past 7 weeks that they have created a safe, equitable school environment for kids and families that want to choose to go to school.

The district has had 97 cases out of 29,000 students. That is .33%. The district also states in the newsletter that most of the contact has been outside of school, not in school.

Our teachers are telling us that distance learning days are not as effective. A quote from a district 196 teacher:

"Here are some things I've noticed in our hybrid model:

• It looks like when students are in school, they are working and willingly learning.
• Unfortunately, when students go home for their "distance learning" day, many students seem to choose NOT to watch our instructional videos, or work through the practice activities. This makes it so students get behind very quickly.
• My YouTube measurements seem to show that about 50% of students watch any daily videos and the average length they watch the videos is about 1 minutes and 30 seconds, even though many of the videos are often about 6 minutes."

Distance learning is not as effective as in school learning. Not to mention the challenges that parents have with working and kids schooling from home. Or the mental health of our students. There are many reasons that the district should continue the hybrid model and very few reasons for the district to go to 100% distance.

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION TO TELL THE DISTRICT THAT YOU WANT THE HYBRID MODEL TO CONTINUE. AS A COMMUNITY WE CAN IMPACT CHANGE.