Mt. Hope High School students will be back in school two days a week, starting next Tuesday, after Bristol Warren Regional School District officials decided this week to switch to the Partial Hybrid Model that they originally planned for the start of the school year.

That model, which will have 50 percent of the students who chose in-person learning in the school every day — meaning they all go into the building two days per week, with Mondays being used for full distance virtual support — was sidelined days before the start of the school year amid concerns that the school’s physical constraints wouldn’t allow the appropriate social distancing and space requirements to keep everyone safe.

In the weeks since re-opening, though, things have changed dramatically, mostly because of a lower-than-anticipated student population. Since Sept. 10, when the district decided to send Mt. Hope students to school only one day per week, 114 students pulled out of the in-person learning model and decided to stay home every day. Since Sept. 10, the number of students in that category rose from 243 to 357, leading to lower student counts at the high school and thus, more room for flexibility.

“We don’t have any way of gauging why parents made that decision” over the past three weeks, Superintendent Dr. Brice said Wednesday morning. But he added, officials hope to soon find out.

Prior to the end of the first quarter on Nov. 13, parents and teachers will be given surveys asking them their thoughts on the year so far, the next steps and in the case of parents, and their preferred option for distance or in-person learning.

The data will be used to track the school’s progress and options, and Dr. Brice said parents will also be asked if they want to transition their full distance learning students back to the partial hybrid in-person/distance learning model once the second quarter begins on Nov. 17.

“We’ll get (the surveys) back the first week of November,” Dr. Brice said. “That will help us to know how many students require in-person and how many are going distance learning.”

“We have to be flexible,” he added. “Because we have to be flexible, we’re going to take feedback. We’ve been monitoring the data now into the third week (of school) and we feel like we have a good handle on rituals and routines. We’re going to need time to count numbers ... and really, the six feet of distance (requirement) and the number of students on distance learning will help to drive” the district’s decisions.

He said the surveys will likely go out about a week prior to the end of the first quarter.