Students at Northampton Area High School and Northampton Area Middle School can expect to attend school in-person two days a week when the 2020-21 academic year begins Aug. 31.

Students in grades kindergarten through fifth grade would attend classes in person.

Face coverings will be required on buses and in schools.

“Our yellow plan, or plan B, will be a hybrid approach,” NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik said in a July 27 video chat.

The plan is to be presented for review and a vote at the next Northampton Area School District Board of Education meeting, set for 6:30 p.m. Aug. 10 in the cafeteria of NAMS, 1617 Laubach Ave., Northampton.

Meanwhile, a districtwide survey found that 76 percent of parents and guardians want their students to continue with face-to-face instruction, 20 percent want their students to have online instruction from home, and 10 to 15 percent of parents and guardians did not respond to the survey.

A draft of the 40-page plan, 2020-2021 Continuity of Learning and Health and Safety Plans, was to have been emailed to parents and guardians July 29.

Students in grades 6-12 would attend in person Tuesdays and Thursdays or Wednesdays and Fridays, based on an alphabetized system of the first letter of their last names. On days when not attending in-person classes, secondary school students would take classes online. All secondary school students would stay home Mondays.

The schedule also applies to vocational-technical schools.

The July 27 video chat can be viewed at youtube.com/watch?v=iq0zfnZjFME.

Editor’s note: See additional details of the 2020-21 Continuity of Learning and Health and Safety Plans in the Aug. 6 edition of Northampton Press.