MOSES LAKE — Moses Lake School Board voted Thursday to alter its high school opening plan, with all students starting online instruction full-time when school begins on Sept. 9.

Meeting online, the board voted three to one, with one abstention, to approve a modification proposed by Superintendent Josh Meek to delay the start of in-class education, either full-time or blended with online learning, until COVID-19 cases in Grant County reach certain benchmarks.

“I am personally very disappointed by this, but it is the decision of the board,” said Board President Elliott Goodrich, the lone vote against the measure.

Voting in favor were board members Bryce McPartland, Vickey Melcher and Shannon Hintz. Board Vice President Susan Freeman said she was having technical difficulties participating in the meeting, and no vote from her on the measure was recorded.

The change would limit all high school instruction to online “with all instruction and engagement happening remotely,” according to the proposal, as long as COVID-19 cases in Grant County remained above 75 per 100,000 people over the previous 14 days — even for families that selected full-time or part-time in-class instruction for the fall.

Below 75, but above 25 per 100,000 people, all students opting for any kind of in-class instruction would take four of their required seven classes on campus, with the other three taken online.

And below 25 per 100,000, full-time on-campus instruction would resume “following the health recommendations for facial coverings, physical distancing, screening, etc.” for those who had chosen it, the proposal said.

Goodrich said given the current COVID-19 rates reported in Grant County — 561 confirmed cases per 100,000 according to data posted late Thursday by Grant County Health District — the goals outlined in the modification are both unrealistic and unachievable.

Goodrich also said “there is no science” involved in the 75-per-100,000 figure, and would commit the district to full-remote education “indefinitely” for high school students.

McPartland wondered if there were any way to adjust the figures in order to improve the chances of resuming in-class instruction.

“Can we adjust our numbers higher? We’re miles from them,” he asked.

Prior to Thursday’s vote, the district offered parents three options — full-time, in-class instruction, part-time online and part-time in class, and full-time offline using the district’s remote learning curriculum.

However, the plan would also require the district to group students in cohorts — something that is much easier to do in elementary school than it is in middle or high school, where students move from classroom to classroom and teacher to teacher.

Meek said he proposed the changes to high school this fall in order to forestall any problems caused by interruptions to learning, both for individuals and for entire cohorts, that outbreaks of COVID-19 might create at Moses Lake High School.

“The high school is one place where practicing true social distancing and cohorting are the most challenging, so to be true to the recommendations we needed to recommend a change,” Meek wrote in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald after the meeting.

In the school district’s 15-page “Return to School Procedure Index,” Meek pointed out the strict criteria — close contact with someone who has COVID-19, a positive diagnosis but no symptoms, or one or more symptoms — that would send a student or even an entire cohort home for 10 or 14 days.

“We are working very hard to deliver options, but we have to be realistic about what to expect,” Meek told board members at the meeting Thursday. “With a population our size, there are going to be interruptions.”

Goodrich said the three-option plan as approved by the district in July could work but would require a great deal of work and the exercise of restraint and personal responsibility on the part of every parent and student to make it work.

“It will only work if people are responsible,” he said. “People need to keep kids home if they have symptoms or might be sick.”

Goodrich also suggested opening in-class education for two weeks, followed by a temporary suspension to evaluate how in-person education was going — a proposal the board did not consider.

The school board created the three different options in July to give all parents and students the chance to succeed, Goodrich said.

“Every kid in our community will not be successful at full-remote learning,” the board president explained. “There is no path to getting back into the classroom. I’m very disappointed.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.