The new school year is up and running and, in the weeks leading up to this unique start to the 2020-21 academic year, the Fountain Hills Unified School District offered students four options for returning to their studies.

In the final weeks of summer, local students responded to a survey from the District indicating which option they had selected. Options included in-person study on local campuses, online studies and mixtures of the two. The District received 977 responses.

The majority of students chose to go with in-classroom instruction, with the second most popular choice being to study from home with a live feed of the classroom. These two options are interchangeable, as a student who is absent will also have access to the live feed.

Only 4.5 percent of students selected “Option C,” an online curriculum that was only developed for students in grades nine through 12. A total of 13.9 percent of students selected “Option D,” another online option developed by Schools PLP for students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

While a majority of FHUSD students are ready to return to the classroom in person, most will be taking their own transportation there as an added safety precaution against the spread of COVID-19. A total of 73.5 percent of students responded they would use personal transportation to get to and from school while 26.5 percent said they would use the buses.

Finally, the District has also reached out to its teachers to see how many local educators were ready to get back to the classroom. A total of 92.2 percent responded that they are able to report to work and will not require any accommodations, other than previous accommodations that were already in place. A total of 7.8 percent of educators reported back that they would need additional safety accommodations in order to report back to work.

FHUSD returned to instruction on Aug. 11 with online learning and local campuses are scheduled to open for in-person learning on Monday, Sept. 8.