Fredonia’s Board of Education will discuss a return to in-person learning after a discussion at a committee meeting tonight. District Superintendent Bradley Zilliox wouldn’t give an exact timeline yet, but gave an outline of what in person would look like across different grade levels.

“There is a plan for grades three and four to return to school five days a week,” he said. “But on the other extreme, we’re looking to bring all the students who are currently hybrid four days a week, with maintaining Monday as a virtual day.”

The committee met last week to discuss what the initial plan for in-person education returning would look like, and received the input of the principals of the elementary, middle school, and high school, while putting a large focus on receiving feedback from the community and parents.

“We’ve reached out to families and asked them if they’re willing to commit to this current model for the remainder of the year,” Zilliox said. “I know it could be difficult to ask a family in January to project how they’ll feel in April, May, or June, but we felt like it was the questions that needed to be asked.”

Zilliox and the board asked for any feedback to be given to them before the end of the school day Thursday, giving them an hour before the meeting to have all the possible information to evaluate prior to and during the return to school committee meeting.

The obstacles that returning to in-person learning pose have to do with class size and social distancing. The school needs to ensure that there are an appropriate number of classrooms to support each class size, and desk to support students, all while keeping them six feet apart to comply with social distancing.

“We can only fit so many desks and students in a classroom,” Zilliox said. “If we look to bring 100 students back, we have to start to think about how many rooms and desks those students would occupy. If we need to fit 125 or 130 students in a grade level in that same space, we wouldn’t be able to return to everyone.”

Zilliox stressed that the nature of the situation, both with the virus and government regulations, is ever changing, and while there isn’t one plan that will make everyone satisfied, the school is trying to do what is best for the students who attend Fredonia.

“You never know what’s coming next,” Zilliox said. “Sometimes people think that school boards and superintendents get some information before a press conference, but we hear everything the same time as everyone else.”

“There is no right answer, and no one plan where everyone will be satisfied and happy,” Zilliox continued. “It makes the administrative team weigh the pros and cons and take all factors into account. We’ll do our best to make the decision best for the students, but unfortunately it’s difficult to find a solution that everyone feels 100% good about. We’ve been open and communicated, and there has been opportunity for input and dialogue, which is extremely important to the process.”