The Teton County School District has moved back to a partial in-school learning model after taking all teaching and learning fully online earlier this month.

The change followed Eastern Idaho Public Health’s decision to move Teton County from a critical- to high-risk category for spreading coronavirus, Teton public relations consultant Jeannie Anderson said Friday.

On Monday, about half of Teton’s students returned to their school buildings as part of an alternating, in-person schedule based on students’ last names:

• Students with last names starting with A-K attend classes in-person Mondays and Wednesdays.
• Those with last names starting with  L-Z attend in-person Tuesday and Thursday.

Fridays are a work/collaboration day for teachers, Anderson said.

On Nov. 15, the Teton district moved all of its roughly 1,900 students to a fully home-based learning model amid a surge of confirmed local cases of COVID-19. The change made Teton one of a handful of districts to switch to a fully remote model so far this school year. The Boise, Caldwell and Nampa school districts are taking all learning online through the rest of 2020 amid a renewed surge of confirmed cases.

EdNews tracks and regularly updates school operation plans and coronavirus risk levels during the pandemic. Click here to view the updated map.