The Indianola School Board met in special session Thursday evening, approving a full return for elementary students on January 20th, pending the hiring of a special education teacher. Superintendent Art Sathoff tells KNIA News one of the hurdles the district has faced has been finding a special education teacher that will handle the students who are receiving an education virtually.

“It’s difficult to connect remotely at times. Right now with the shortened day, special education teachers do have that dedicated time to do that. But if we bring students back full time on site and expand those minutes, especially for specially designed instruction for students who are on site, then we are not sure how we are going to connect with our remote learners. So that’s where our personnel comes in and hopefully the ability to hire some additional help with that.”

Sathoff also said if the district can hire the necessary staff, the district may return to a full schedule earlier than January 20th, however all parents will receive a two-week notice of the schedule change under all circumstances.