Elementary school students return to a Sacramento County district. But some are staying home

Students in the Natomas Unified School District continued returning to in-person instruction Monday after the district reopened classes through a staggered schedule this month.

The district is the second in Sacramento County to bring students back to campuses — and the first in 2021.

Nearly 300 students in grades three through five walked onto the campus of Two Rivers Elementary, joining students in pre-kindergarten through second grade who returned last week.

Just over 2,300 elementary students, including sixth-graders in self contained classrooms, returned in a district of about 10,000 students. About 40% of elementary aged students are returning to campus, and 60% continued school online, according to district officials.

In-person instruction involves about three hours on campus, and students alternate days with another cohort. On days and afternoons that students are not on campus, they are receiving full online instruction from their teachers. Students learn in a concurrent model, as teachers instruct both students in-person and online at the same time.

At Two Rivers Elementary, eight students sat in Jennie Tammar’s first-grade class for the first time since March 2020.

Students sat in desks six feet apart, wearing colorful masks. Their new backpacks were placed at their feet.

Their 16 classmates streamed in online, listening to Tammar’s unit lesson on how to identify the long “i” sound in “lion” and “fly.”

“Give me a thumbs up when you’re done with your work on the screen, or give me a thumbs up here in class,” Tammar told her class.

“I just can’t wait til I get to go to school,” responded one child on Zoom. She told her class she had to wait three more weeks until she could join them.

That’s because Natomas Unified has onboarding dates in which they allow additional students to return to campus if they choose to. On its next onboarding date, about 40 students will return to Two Rivers Elementary after requesting to join their peers in-person.

“As parents continue to see what classrooms look like, some are choosing to come back,” Principal Colleen Perry said.

Phi Tang’s third-grade classroom served just three students in-person on Monday, while 19 joined through Zoom. Another cohort will be in class on Tuesday.

Tang taught a lesson on the story of Philippe Petit, the French man who became famous for his high-wire walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. She seamlessly split her online students into groups to discuss the story, and had her three students in-person share their thoughts on Petit’s performance — all while remaining in their physically distanced seats.

Perry said while some classes were not filled with many students, it was important to honor family choices and provide those students with individualized attention.

District officials said that parent choice was behind the varying numbers. At Two Rivers, more fifth-graders returned to their classrooms than their younger peers.

“We didn’t want to force decisions on parents and students,” said district spokesperson Deidra Powell. “For some families (in-person) was their option, and for others it wasn’t. We wanted to give everyone a choice.”

Natomas Unified students will be in school until June 10.

This story was originally published March 8, 2021 at 2:07 PM.