The Pleasant Valley School District is seeking input from the parents of its students in grades kindergarten through sixth grade. The district wants to know if they want to go back to school in-person full time.

Last week, Superintendent Lee Lesisko reached out to the parents and asked them to complete a survey accessible on the district’s website. He said that by Friday afternoon, 970 parents had completed the survey. Of those who had completed it, 85% supported in-person classes five days a week.

“Parents want them back in school,” he said.

Lesisko said the state Department of Health and the Department of Education are encouraging school districts to find ways to safely bring the younger students back to school on a full-time basis. That’s why he decided to get input from the parents.

He said he also wanted to be upfront with parents, so the survey questions asked them if they would send their child back to school if the social distancing was 3 feet to 6 feet apart. It also asked them if they would send their child on the school bus with children sitting two per seat. Of course, the children would be expected to wear a mask the entire time they were on the school bus.

If the school district moves to a five-day program, then the hybrid program would stop. Parents whose children are currently in the hybrid program, but do not want to move to full day would have the option of working at home on a full-time basis, he said.

“We are listening to them,” he said. “Bottom line, the safety of the students is number one.”

As for students currently in the district’s cyber academy or another cyber-charter school, private school or home schooling, the survey asks those parents if they would want their children to return to the district’s elementary and intermediate schools five days a week. If they do want to return, then when, and listed the remaining months of the school year and fall of 2021. It also gave the parents the option of selecting that they would not return to the school buildings.

The school district also created a survey for the teachers to complete. Lesisko said he didn’t have any results from that survey yet. He plans to go over the results of both surveys with the school board at their next meeting on Thursday.

The survey for the parents is still open for them to complete through today. It is accessible on the school district’s website at pvbears.org.