Safety is our ‘No. 1 priority,’ Wake says, when middle schools reopen Monday
Wake County school leaders are trying to reassure families and teachers that it will be safe when middle school students return Monday for face-to-face classes for the first time in eight months.
An estimated 6,000 Wake middle school students will be at school on Monday as part of a phased return to in-person instruction that began with elementary students on Oct. 26. Students are returning to a new environment where face masks are required, temperatures are checked daily and people are expected to maintain social distancing due to COVID-19.
“The No. 1 priority around reopening is safety and that is of staff, of students and anyone who comes on that campus,” Wake County Superintendent Cathy Moore said at a news conference Friday outside Wake Forest Middle School. “We know how important in-person instruction is.
“We know how important that the continuation of learning is for kids, and so we want to make sure that we’re doing this right and taking every step possible to show that our schools can safely reopen.”
Wake County middle school students haven’t had in-person classes since March 13, after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper ordered K-12 public schools to close to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
More students failing during remote learning
Like the majority of school districts in the state, Wake opened the school year in August offering only online classes. But that has led to a drop in student performance that Moore said will be discussed at the Nov. 17 school board meeting.
“We do have a higher failure rate than we had first quarter the same time the year before.” Moore said Friday.
For months, Wake school leaders have said their goal is to bring students back for in-person classes as soon as safely possible. Wake is the state’s largest school district, with 160,000 students.
On Oct. 26, PreK-3 students and K-12 special-education students in regional programs began returning to campus on a rotation of one week of in-person classes and two weeks of remote learning.
“The reports from our elementary schools is that all is well, all is going very well,” school board chairman Keith Sutton said Friday. “We are pleased with what we’ve seen so far. Teachers are excited to see the kids.
“There’s a high compliance rate among our staff and students to the safety protocols and procedures that we have put in place.”
School employees who repeatedly refuse to wear face coverings could be fired. Students who repeatedly refuse to wear face coverings could be forced to return to virtual schooling.
The number of Wake students on campus will begin increasing when middle school students return Monday on that three-week rotation.
On Nov. 16, the special-ed regional students and PreK-3 students will begin getting daily in-person classes. Also that day, students in fourth and fifth-grades will return on that three-week rotation plan.
High school students will remain with online classes only until the fall semester ends in January.
Wake is tentatively looking at a plan that next semester would have all elementary students getting daily in-person classes and middle schools and high schools operating on the three-week rotation. Only Virtual Academy students would continue to not get in-person classes.
Easing concerns of teachers
The reopening plan has faced opposition from some teachers who feel it’s not yet safe to return for in-person classes. To try to ease concerns, Moore announced three measures that will be used to make sure safety protocols are being followed:
▪ School employees can fill out an online accountability survey each day listing concerns that they have.
▪ The district’s top administrators will visit schools regularly to check on conditions.
▪ Employees can anonymously use a confidential reporting app to share their concerns.
Moore said those tools will help build a “culture of compliance” where students and staff are following the 3W’s of wearing a face covering, staying at least 6 ft. apart and washing their hands regularly.
Moore also pointed to how the school district’s COVID-19 online dashboard only shows 25 confirmed COVID-19 cases since Oct 26.
“I don’t want any cases in our schools, but we know that’s not a realistic goal,” Moore said. “So I want to make sure that we’re limiting spread, and so I feel good about the fact that we’re limiting spread at this point.”
On Thursday, state health director Dr. Betsey Tilson told the State Board of Education that the reopening of public schools was not driving the state’s rising number of COVID-19 cases.
Social distancing in middle schools
The state is allowing middle schools to reopen under rules that limit the number of people on campus. To get numbers down, Wake offered the Virtual Academy program and split the remaining students into three groups.
Wake Forest Middle School has 1,100 students. But between the Virtual Academy and the three rotations, principal Chris Bradford said only around 200 students will be on campus next week.
“Things are going to look different when students re-enter,” Bradford said at Friday’s news conference.
Students will find one-way hallways. Lockers won’t be used to minimize how long kids are in hallways. Teachers will dismiss students in small groups instead of having them all leave at the same time.
Students will still eat in Wake Forest’s cafeteria. But they’ll be spaced further apart and will all be seated facing the same direction.
Work will increase for teachers
The return of students to campuses is also increasing work for teachers.
Many teachers will now have to teach both the Virtual Academy students and the students who are rotating between the in-person and online classes. Teachers may have to simultaneously teach both the students who are physically in their classroom and the students who are learning online from home.
The additional work on teachers is a reason why there’s at least one day a week for the rest of the semester where students won’t have either in-person classes or live online classes. Teachers will use that day for planning.
Michelle Rothfield, a sixth-grade math teacher at Wake Forest Middle, said she’s figured out a way to teach the lessons so that the students who are on campus and those who are at home will get the same information. She said it’s a lot of work but worth it to see her students in-person again.
“It’s different times and we’re doing what we can do to get that information to those kids,” Rothfeld said in an interview Friday.
With all the changes happening, Moore, the superintendent, asked families to continue to show grace and flexibility on Monday.
“On Monday, whether your student is learning from home or returning to one of our campuses, please extend that grace, flexibility, kindness and cooperation to your classroom teacher, to your school staff so that we can maintain our schools open,” Moore said.
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 3:17 PM.
