A Major Change Begins Monday For Rochester Elementary Students

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Rochester, MN (KROC AM News) - A major change in the learning model for Rochester Public Schools is scheduled to begin Monday.

RPS will transition its PreK - 5th grade students from a hybrid model to full in-person learning, five days a week.

Here’s the latest information from RPS:

• Beginning on March 1, K - grade 5 students will resume their adjust school start times of 9:10/9:15 AM and dismissal time of 3:05 PM to meet the expectations of Governor Walz’s Executive Order 20.95.
• SACC (School Age Child Care) will be open at 3:05 PM for families who have already pre-registered for SACC.
• There will be no school for students on Wednesday, February 24 because this will be a Model Change Planning Day for teachers.
• Students that have chosen to remain in Distance Learning will continue with Distance Learning for the remainder of the school year.

Secondary students have been in a remote learning model since the pandemic began but that is scheduled to change. At this time, RPS is tentatively planning to return all secondary students to a classroom setting on April 5th:

• Middle and High School students will return to in-person learning beginning on April 5, which is the first day of the fourth quarter.
• Students will resume their pre-pandemic start times of 7:40 AM and dismissal time of 2:30 PM for Middle School and 3:03 PM for High School.
  Students in grades 6 and 9 will participate in an in-person orientation day prior to April 5.
• Individual schools will communicate schedule information with their students/families.
• There will be no school for students on March 17, March 24, and March 25 because these will be a Model Change Planning Day for teaching staff, pending Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) approval.
• The School Board will review district, local, and state data on March 16 at their School Board Meeting. If the data has significantly changed, indicating an increase in transmission, the Board may make adjustments to the start day of the learning model.
• Students will have the opportunity to remain in Distance Learning. Information will come directly from your school.

A group of Rochester parents has been asking the RPS Board to return all students to their schools on a full-time basis.

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