In Bend-La Pine Schools’ initial plan to restart in-person learning in late January/early February, families were given two options: return to classrooms, or enroll in Bend-La Pine Schools Online. Comprehensive distance learning — the system most students had participated in since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020 — wasn’t a choice.

But after federal COVID-19 funding became available to hire more teachers, Bend-La Pine changed course this week, informing families that comprehensive distance learning would be a third option.

However, unlike spring and fall 2020, students that opt to stay in comprehensive distance learning will be placed in an online cohort of students from around the district, and they’ll have new teachers.

This change in the comprehensive distance learning plan has drawn mixed reactions from local parents and school staff.

“Ideally, everyone would be with their same teacher, but we have to be realistic,” said Mariah Staats, a mother of two sons at Cascade Middle School, who plans to stick with comprehensive distance learning. “We’re rolling with it; we’re coming from a place of gratitude.”

How is comprehensive distance learning changing?

The differences between comprehensive distance learning and Bend-La Pine Schools Online can seem negligible at first glance. In both options, students learn from home using the internet. But beyond that, the two programs are quite different.

Comprehensive distance learning features more live instruction from local teachers through video chat. Students interact with fellow students online in breakout sessions, and they have set schedules like a traditional school day.

In Bend-La Pine Schools Online, students are much more independent. There is no schedule, and no live classroom video chats. There are local Bend-La Pine staff who can assist students when needed, but much of the actual teaching is self-guided — or parent-guided, for younger students — and uses pre-recorded videos from nonlocal teachers and written assignments. Elementary students in Bend-La Pine Schools Online can participate in optional enrichment activities, such as a book club, with local teachers and students.

In the new comprehensive distance learning plan, which will begin the week of Feb. 8, students will still have daily live instruction from local teachers. But while cohorts of students will still be sorted by grade, each virtual classroom will have a mix of students from various schools. And instead of every local teacher participating, it will only be those that chose to not teach in-person, said Superintendent Lora Nordquist.

The number of local teachers who will teach in the new distance learning plan depends entirely on how many families choose that plan. If there are more teachers who want to stay online than the district needs, then teachers can either take unpaid leave — which they would have had to request in 2020 — take medical leave if there are health concerns, or resign.

It is unclear how many new teachers will be hired, as a survey asking families which school option they’ll pick won’t be complete until Wednesday, Nordquist said.

How do families feel about this change?

Although some families might be frustrated that their child won’t have the same teacher starting Feb. 8, having teachers educate students in the classroom and at home at the same time is too large a burden for teachers, and ineffective for students’ education, Nordquist said.

“Parents have asked, ‘Couldn’t we just put a computer or video camera in the room?’” she said. “That is not an appropriate instructional model.”

Jen Sawyer — mother of a sixth-grader at High Desert Middle School and second grader at R.E. Jewell Elementary — said she felt indifferent about the new comprehensive distance learning plan. She appreciated the third option for families, but was frustrated that Bend-La Pine leaders didn’t offer it immediately, and didn’t come up with a plan that gave teachers more control.

“I feel like they had a lot of time to figure this out, to where they could match teachers with students a little bit better,” Sawyer said. “I don’t feel like (teachers) had a lot of say.”

Nicole Perullo, who has a fifth-grader at William E. Miller Elementary and twin seventh-graders at Pacific Crest Middle School, said the new comprehensive distance learning plan, which she referred to as CDL, was inadequate.

“These children have had so much loss and so much change this year, I think they need consistency and rhythm,” she said. “There’s no point in having a CDL with new teachers.”

Emily Gibson — a social-emotional learning specialist at Silver Rail Elementary — said she was delighted when Bend-La Pine restored the comprehensive distance learning option. The ideal situation, allowing each student to stay with his or her teacher, wouldn’t make sense logistically, she said.

“It’s not what we were envisioning,” Gibson said. “But of course, when you’re dealing with an entire school district of Bend’s size, what we may be envision may not even be possible at a district level.”