Of the approximately 95 members of the high school faculty, 18 people requested and received accommodations to work from home during hybrid learning, which began March 8, according to Principal Paul Beekmeyer. 

Science teacher Matt Martino requested an accommodation to work from home as his first grade daughter has a medical condition placing her at higher risk for COVID-19. 

“The nice thing about the remote accommodation now is that I have a system of how class runs that works as well as it works,” Mr. Martino said, “and it’s not going to work any worse when half of my students are Zooming in from school as opposed to school.”

When deciding whether to take the hybrid or remote option, Mr. Martino weighed the costs and benefits he saw of returning to in-person instruction.

“I was trying really hard to come up with benefits that I could see from being in person with 40% of my students in order to weigh against the risk of going to school,” Mr. Martino said.  “Personally I couldn’t find enough benefits to make it worthwhile.”

Before accommodations were approved for high school faculty, Faculty Association vice president Sharon Housinger said she worked with the administration to get information about working conditions and accommodations.

“The school refused to tell us any information other than were going to take this on a case-by-case basis,” Ms. Housinger said. 

The administration began to notify people Feb. 26 about their accommodations, and everyone who asked for an accommodation received one, according to Ms. Housinger. 

Although Mr. Martino will continue to teach from home, he said the idea of student and teacher in-person, social interaction is very important, but he does not think his students will suffer academically with Zoom classes. 

“I can’t say that I think there’s going to be a great deal of academic benefit from the in-person component of most people’s classes,” Mr. Martino said.