Catholic High to implement hybrid learning model

Catholic Central High School will adopt a hybrid education model - simultaneously offering in-person learning and remote learning - for the 2020-21 academic year, the school announced in a press release Tuesday.

Subject to state regulations, the model - approved by the school’s Board of Trustees - will provide opportunities for both in-person direct instruction from the school’s North Troy campus and virtual learning from home. The CCHS facility will teach in-person from their classrooms and virtually from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. 

“Catholic Central High School’s ability to provide both in-person classroom instruction and virtual instruction online allows our students to have consistent instruction without compromise,” Principal Christopher Signor said. “In rolling out this hybrid model, the board, administration and facility pledge to maintain the same high level of accountability for virtual instruction as it does for classroom instruction.” 

School officials prefer students return to campus, but understand that in-person instruction still poses a significant challenge due to underlying health and safety concerns, the press release stated. The school also acknowledges that in the coming months, some students will mix in-person and virtual learning as family dynamics change with the evolving “new normal.”

“Virtual learning is not an excuse to reduce the academic rigor of the Catholic High program,” said Ridge Harris, chair of the  Board of Trustees. “The partnership we have with our administration, facility, students, and parents in ensuring that virtual instruction is treated like classroom instruction is paramount in the success of the hybrid model.”

CCHS, like all diocesan schools, quickly implemented distance learning - through online tools such as Google Classroom - on March 16, just days before New York State on PAUSE went into effect. 

The press releases added, “The uncertainty about schools returning to ‘normal’ will remain for some time. … CCHS believes the hybrid model provides the flexibility families need to navigate these very trying times while providing each student with a strong academic program, in-person or online, that prepares them for the future.”