JACKSON, Wyo. — Teton County School District is opting to take it safe and slow with potential classes four days a week for elementary and secondary school students, delaying a back to school room on Fridays consideration until next month.

At its regularly scheduled meeting, the board of trustees opted to continue with current elementary and secondary schedules which call for in-classroom instruction four days per week for those families that have opted to do so in elementary schools. Students of secondary schools attend class two days a week and take part in distance learning the other two. A fifth day to complete the week was not added at this time.

Teton District Health Officer Dr. Travis Riddell wasn’t necessarily opposed to the idea.

“Increasing in-person classroom time from four to five days per week would increase each student’s exposure to the other students, teachers, and staff in their cohort or ‘pod,’” Riddell wrote to the board. “However, a 20% increase in exposure to the same individuals is unlikely to significantly increase risk of COVID-19 exposure, especially given the alternative option for many families on Fridays.”

In fact, Riddell worried more about what those students were doing and where they were going on Fridays without school.

The decision to continue with the four-day week was made primarily on behalf of teachers, who bear greater responsibility with the new schedule.

“Teachers are with their pods all day,” explained Charlotte Reynolds, TCSD spokesperson. “Recess, lunch—time when their students would normally be with different instructors and staff—teachers are with their kids all the time. That means they have no time during a school day to do lesson planning, grading papers, or any of the other responsibilities they have. That all falls to Friday right now and they need that day, honestly.”

The board will consider a five-day-a-week schedule at a special meeting on October 5. If approved then, the earliest the schedule would go into effect would be October 19.

A decision on secondary schools, which Reynolds said are more crowded making smaller pods impossible, will be considered at the board’s regularly scheduled meeting on October 14. The earliest a five-day-a-week schedule would be in place for the middle- and high school would be in November when the second quarter semester starts.

Meanwhile, the activity bus will resume on September 14. Students must be registered to ride the bus, and they must have a sticker on their bus pass.