Decatur City Schools plan to begin classes next week offering three learning options: virtual, blended and traditional.

Superintendent Michael Douglas says the numbers keep changing, but as of Friday, around 30% of currently enrolled students are planning to do virtual or blended learning.

Douglas says they are hiring personnel in many areas to accommodate new measures.

“We’ve been hiring more nurses, of course they’re hard to come by. We’ve had to hire more cleaning staff, we’ve actually contracted with some other companies to help us clean buildings,” Douglas said.

In addition, the district created a new position for one of their teachers, Adriana Rodriguez, as a Bilingual Parent Engagement Specialist to work with the district’s Hispanic population, which is around 30% of students.

“The position I’m going to develop during this school year is mostly to support principals, teachers and especially parents to know how to work with their children at home,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez says she will work to reduce some of the problems encountered in the spring during virtual learning.

“The situation we lived in during the spring when we had to close schools and we didn’t know how to work with parents and what they need is support, it’s help, it’s to answer a lot of questions and join us during this period that is uncertain for everyone,” Rodriguez said.

While her bilingual role will support Hispanic families, she says she will also be a resource wherever help is needed to facilitate virtual learning.

“I’m going to be working at every school with every teacher with each principal to support every student and family that needs help at any time,” Rodriguez said.