August 12, 2020
By News Director Jared Atha
For the first time since mid March, students will return to classrooms in western Oklahoma.
The Elk City School District will re-open its doors Thursday after weeks of coming up with, and fine tuning, their Return to Learn Plan. Superintendent Rick Garrison says the most important thing is if a student, or faculty member, feels sick – stay home.
Garrison says the district is not mandating masks but does highly recommend them when social distancing is not possible.
Garrison describes his teachers as being anxious, but excited and eager to get back to the classroom.
Garrison says a select number of students are using the Virtual Elk program to start the school year, which is the option to have complete in-home instruction. He says some students are choosing to use the “blended” option as well, which allows students to participate in extra-curricular activities in person, and return home to complete class work virtually.
Other area schools starting class Thursday include Canute, Merritt, Sayre, Burns Flat-Dill City, Cheyenne, Arapaho-Butler and Erick. Clinton chose to delay their start date a week. That district will now re-open its campus on August 20.
