Sixth thru 12th grade students in the Highland school district will be returning to a hybrid learning schedule starting this Monday (11/16). Superintendent Ken Crawford says the decision comes in the wake COVID-19 cases rising again in Washington and Johnson counties, “I know some schools are going online, but we feel our elementaries are pretty good, so we’re going to keep them onsite 100 percent capacity. But at the secondary level we have several (students) quarantining and some possible positive cases coming our way so instead of pulling the plug and going 100 percent online; we’ve had several kids quarantined and alot of experiences with kids being quarantined going stir-crazy and emotional distress if happening at home, so we felt like we would go back to what we did the first six weeks of the school year and go back to a hybrid, so we’re going to start that Monday through that Wednesday before Thanksgiving.”

Crawford says the plan could change again given the fluid nature of the situation. Students will be split into two groups and will attend classes in-person on alternating days.

As of Friday, Washington County’s 14-day positivity rate for COVID-19 was 17.4% and Johnson County was 17.1%.

*KCII initially reported that the changes for the hybrid learning in the story above would effect 6th through 12th grade students in Highland and Lone Tree.  The inclusion of Lone Tree in the original report was inaccurate.  The hybrid learning decision effects ONLY Highland 6th-12th graders.  We apologize for the error.