As hybrid instruction continues due to the COVID-19 pandemic, YLHS has about 700 students attending in-person instruction. Although conditions have recently improved for Orange County, many students have chosen to remain online. PYLUSD hopes to increase the in-person attendance by transitioning from a two-day in-person week to four days starting April 19th. 

While there is a great possibility that the number of in-person students will increase, this transition may have the opposite effect. The letter sent out to PYLUSD families asked students to “commit to one form of instruction from April 19 until the last day of school” (pylusd.org). Although the 2-day schedule did not specify that students could switch between in-person and online instruction, many students enjoyed the convenience of choosing when to attend school. With the new instructions provided, signing up for in-person attendance may seem less appealing as there is more commitment to just one option

Another problem that many students face when choosing between in-person and remote learning is if their friends will attend in-person instruction. Of course, one of the main reasons that students would want to go back to campus is to see their friends. Currently, the majority of students are remote, making it less likely for some students to come back as most of their friends aren’t. Hannah Bucklin (11) agrees that “people won’t want to go back to school if none of their friends will be there with them.” 

PYLUSD’s letter also mentioned that “in classrooms where student occupancy exceeds the amount of desks allotted […], students will be rotated […] to supervised, extended classrooms. Students in extended classrooms will access their class(es) via Zoom.” According to the current number of students on campus, this may not be a large issue. However, students may be reluctant to choose in-person instruction for the remainder of the school year as there is a possibility that they will have to attend class on Zoom anyways – despite being on campus.

As there are many contributing factors for students deciding between in-person and remote learning, we can predict another transition before the end of the 2020-2021 school year. PYLUSD has not announced anything of the sort yet; however, according to occovid19.ochealthinfo.com, on March 31st, Orange county moved from the red tier to the orange. As we hope to see a transition to the yellow tier in the near future, it is still a possibility that PYLUSD will decide to begin opening schools completely.

Students and families have many factors to consider when choosing to stay remote or attend school in person for the remainder of the year but depending on how the number of cases changes, there is a possibility that a return to normalcy is just around the corner.