Wake students return to school Monday. Parents, prepare your kids.
Wake County elementary students will return to classrooms Monday for face-to-face instruction far different than before schools closed in March.
Students will wear masks and have their temperatures checked every day to see if they might have COVID-19. Students will wash their hands frequently, may eat lunch in their classrooms and sit apart from each other to avoid physical contact.
“We’re really excited, a little bit of anticipation, a little bit of anxiety about our students returning to school next Monday,” Wake County Superintendent Cathy Moore said at a news conference Friday at Hortons Creek Elementary School in Cary.
Parents can help get their children comfortable for this new school environment by promoting the 3Ws of wearing a face covering, waiting at least 6 feet apart and washing their hands regularly, she said.
“Let them know that wearing a mask is a way that we show our friends, our staff, our teachers that we care about them, that we care about ourselves and that we’re happy to be back in school and want to stay there,” Moore said.
“Practice hand washing and social distancing. Help them understand what it means to not get too close and how important it is to wash your hands frequently and (that) every time a teacher says ‘It’s time to go wash our hands’ they should do so.”
Students return after seven months
On Monday, PreK-3 students and K-12 special-education students in regional programs return for in-person instruction. They will start on a cycle of one week of in-person classes and two weeks of remote classes, before switching to daily in-person classes Nov. 16.
Due to the phase-in, many Wake elementary schools will only have around 50 students on campus Monday.
Middle school students will return to school Nov. 9 for a three-week rotation of in-person and online courses. Fourth- and fifth-grade students will begin on that rotation Nov. 16.
High school students will continue in online-only classes for the rest of the fall semester, which ends in January.
Students in the Virtual Academy, which accounts for 85,000 of Wake’s 160,000 students, are continuing to take only online classes.
Face masks required for students
One of the biggest changes facing students is the state requirement that they wear face coverings in school buses and at school. Only students who receive a medical exemption from the school don’t have to wear masks.
Sandy Chambers, the principal of Hortons Creek Elementary, said she’s received only one request for a mask exemption. Only 22% of the school’s students didn’t sign up for the Virtual Academy.
Students will wear the masks for several hours a day, removing themduring meals and brief outdoor “face covering breaks.”
Moore said they’ll work with students who won’t wear masks to find out why, but “ultimately a student who refuses to wear a mask in the building or on the school grounds will likely be assigned to remote learning.”
Stay home if you’re sick
A new daily part of school will involve students answering questions about whether they’re feeling sick and having their temperature checked. If they fail the daily symptom checks or have a temperature at 100.4 degrees or higher, they won’t be allowed in school.
Moore said parents should be patient because the screening procedures may slow things down at first.
Parents who drive their kids to school are being asked to stay in the carpool lane until their children pass the screening. Bus riders who fail the check will be sent to the school’s Care Center, where they’ll be isolated from the rest of the school until their parents can take them home.
Moore said students and school employees who aren’t feeling well should just stay home.
“If you have a fever, chills, shortness of breath, a new cough or loss of taste or smell, stay home,” she said. “We know that our students need to be back on campus with our teachers, but we also want to maintain a healthy and safe environment for all who are here.”
New bus safety procedures
New school bus procedures are in place, including a requirement that parents of bus riders fill out a form promising to screen their children daily for COVID-19 symptoms and not let them ride if they’re feeling sick.
Other rules include maintaining social distancing at the bus stop, wearing a mask at all times and sitting one student per seat unless a student is with a sibling.
School buses will also get extra cleanings from drivers each day.
Dealing with concerns of teachers
Wake is reopening for in-person classes even though some teachers have protested that it’s not safe yet to reopen.
Moore said they’ve approved requests from many employees to work from home and that other employees who have concerns should bring them to the attention of their school and the district
“It’s really important for us that we do listen to our educators, that we do hear what their concerns are and that we do work together to address them because we can’t do this without our teachers,” Moore said.
Kelly Hurry, a second-grade teacher at Hortons Creek, said Friday she’s not worried about returning. She’s been talking with her students about how they can stay safe when they return to the school.
“I feel safe having them come back in the building,” Hurry said in an interview. “I feel very comfortable with the safety precautions we have in place in the classrooms,”
Flexibility requested
Wake will post information online about coronavirus cases in individual schools. Moore said it’s more likely that parts of the building rather than the whole school will need to be closed for cleaning and sanitizing.
If a large number of staff or students at a school need to be quarantined, she said they’ll assess their ability to stay open for in-person instruction.
School board Chairman Keith Sutton said parents should give the district flexibility.
“There are no two days that will be alike,” Sutton said. “As we hear information on what’s going on in schools as we respond and hear the data trends, we will continue to be responsive.
“We ask parents to stay connected. Communicate with your schools.”
