Adel-DeSoto-Minburn School District Superintendent Greg Dufoe applauds the teachers for their hard work throughout the first month of the school year.

Dufoe tells Raccoon Valley Radio that he’s thrilled with how the first few school weeks have gone from both an educational and a safety standpoint. One of the question marks entering the school year is if the teachers would have enough time to provide quality education to students both on-site and online. Dufoe says he’s also proud of the teachers for how they’ve adapted to teaching on two platforms, “I think they’re doing an outstanding job of balancing both roles. The truth and the reality of it is that we’re actuating two different schools at once. I think it’s went very well. We’re continually examining how we can do things better, what we can tweak and adjust, and make the load more manageable for staff knowing that the ask is pretty significant and looks different than previous years.”

One of the ways the District and Board have tried to ease teachers into this challenging school year is creating four teacher workdays the first four Fridays of the year. These days were remote learning days for students, so teachers could have extra time, in the beginning, to get more comfortable with the online format. Around 8% of ADM students are currently enrolled in the remote learning option.