Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools will keep students in online classes a little longer
Chapel Hill-Carrboro students will remain in online classes for at least half of the next school year, the school board decided Thursday night.
The school board accepted interim Superintendent Jim Causby’s recommendation in a unanimous vote to extend virtual classes to the end of the first semester. The vote came just two weeks after the board decided to keep students in online classes for the first nine weeks of school.
Students are expected to start school Aug. 17. The extension will keep them in online classes through Jan. 15, 2021.
“We (will) review that periodically as we look at the scientific evidence, and at the appropriate time, we can consider adjustments if we need to,” Causby said. “If something happened at the end of the first nine weeks — this all disappears, there’s no more cases — we could reconsider, and we could probably go to Plan A and act like normal.”
He further noted that it’s still unclear what steps Gov. Roy Cooper will recommend for schools in the future.
The board also voted unanimously to waive service-learning requirements for the district’s high school seniors next year. High school seniors in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools are required to complete 25 hours of service to graduate.
Board member Ashton Powell suggested there may be options for students to complete those service hours online or in some other remote way. Board Chair Mary Ann Wolf said the board could look at that option in the next few weeks.
More than half of North Carolina’s public school districts, including Durham, Wake, Chatham and Orange counties, are starting the school year with virtual classes until the state’s COVID-19 numbers improve.
What would happen once students are able to return to in-person classes remains undecided, since some districts are allowing students to choose an all-virtual education.
The CHCCS board briefly discussed Thursday whether all students should be on the same educational track or on different tracks based on whether they could return to the classroom eventually or remain online.
That is a logistical issue that the district doesn’t have all the information to resolve at this point, board member Joal Broun said.
“I would ask the community to be patient with us as we go through this because everyone else is in the same boat except for those very unusual counties where COVID is not as prevalent as it is here,” she said.
The other concern, Broun said, is what the district can do to help students who weren’t learning on grade level when they were in class and the students who refuse to participate in virtual classes. Another big risk, Powell said, is that students in remote learning could end up self-segregating into groups that look like them and have the same socioeconomic status.
“There is an obligation on the community members to make sure that you are not segregating yourself even more than you already have been, by where you bought your house or where you’re renting,” Powell said. “I think the schools should provide some ability to create some kind of pod, whether or not it is a full academic pod or it’s just a small-time social pod.”
The district already is working with the Orange County Schools, local governments and community partners to find a solution for families who need childcare or have other needs. District staff also are looking at how students in occupational education classes can get their required hands-on experience, said Jessica O’Donovan, assistant superintendent for instructional services.
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 7:46 PM.
