Here’s the plan for when Wake high school students could return for in-person classes
Wake County high school students could begin returning for in-person classes in January, nearly 10 months since they were last on campus.
Wake County school administrators recommended Tuesday a plan that would provide all students not in the Virtual Academy with at least some face-to-face instruction in the spring semester. Elementary students would get daily in-person classes, with middle school and high school students getting a mix of in-person and online classes.
High school students have been the only group in Wake who are being excluded from returning for in-person classes this semester, which runs into January.
The school board could approve the plan next week. School leaders have warned though that any plan could change, depending on factors such as whether the state eases up or tightens the school reopening restrictions. Currently, only elementary schools can operate under Plan A, where there are no capacity limits and 6 ft. of social distancing is recommended but not required.
“We must plan with flexibility and the ability to pivot as needed,” Wake County Superintendent Cathy Moore told board members. “That happened at the beginning of the year.”
Students who are in Wake County’s Virtual Academy would still continue to only get online classes next semester. More than 85,000 of Wake’s 160,000 students are attending the Virtual Academy this semester.
Wake phasing in return of students
The plan has come as Wake has been phasing in the return of students since starting the new school year in August with only online classes.
On Oct. 26, PreK-3 students and K-12 special-education students in regional programs were split into three groups and began returning to campus on a rotation of one week of in-person classes and two weeks of remote learning.
Next week, around 24,000 special-ed regional students and PreK-3 students will switch to getting daily in-person classes. Also on Monday, students in fourth and fifth grades will return on that three-week rotation plan.
But some classrooms, especially at older Wake elementary schools, don’t have large enough space to provide 6 feet of social distancing when all the K-3 students are in next week. They’ll try to provide at least 3 feet of distancing instead.
Some fourth-grade and fifth-grade classrooms could have as many as 31 students in them under Plan A, according to Moore.
“We cannot set an expectation that it be 6 feet once we return to Plan A because we can’t do that in some of our classrooms,” Moore said.
Thousands of Wake middle school students returned Monday under that three-week rotation system. Wake can’t have all those students on campus at the same time due to state COVID-19 rules that restrict campus capacity at middle schools and high schools but not at elementary schools.
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In the spring semester plan, the staff has students in fourth and fifth grades joining the younger elementary students and the special-ed regional students in getting daily in-person classes.
Also next semester, middle school students would continue on the three-week rotations of in-person and online classes. They’d be joined by high school students.
But students will only get five hours a week of live instruction in the weeks they’re learning from home. Moore said they can’t get more because many teachers are juggling teaching both the in-person and online students.
COVID-19 cases rising
The planned return of all grade levels comes as coronavirus cases are rising in North Carolina. On Tuesday, the state reported both the 10th highest daily increase in new COVID-19 cases and the 2nd-highest daily total in hospitalizations since the pandemic began in March.
Critics say it’s not yet safe to resume in-person instruction, citing how a teacher at a Fayetteville charter school died last week from COVID-19. Wake teachers have held protests saying the lives of students and school employees are being put at risk by reopening schools.
But school leaders say the reopening plan was built based on advice from experts from the ABC Science Collaborative, which was originally formed out of Duke University to help advise districts on school reopening.
Dr. Danny Benjamin, a pediatrician and a leader in the ABC Science Collaborative, said it doesn’t appear that schools are major spreaders of COVID-19. Looking at data from North Carolina school districts that are part of the project, he said there’s been no child-to-adult transmission.
Schools can safely reopen with no additional risks related to COVID-19 if they adhere to the 3Ws of wearing a face mask, waiting at least 6 feet apart and washing hands frequently, Benjamin said. He added that ”keeping schools closed may be worse for COVID-19 prevention than safe opening.”
“Time spent in schools is is likely safer for children and adults than in the general community,” Benjamin told school leaders.
Wake students are returning under new health rules that include wearing face masks, passing daily health screening checks and maintaining social distancing. Wake also announced measures such as allowing employees to anonymously report concerns and having top district leaders visit schools to see conditions firsthand.
Families could participate in COVID-19 research
As part of its research, ABC wants to get access to Wake County student data to do COVID-19 pediatric research. Some of the data is publicly available and doesn’t have identifiable data for specific students.
But the ABC Science Collaborative wants to ask families in Wake County and the school districts that are part of the project for permission to take part in a project on the treatment of COVID-19.
The school board will review the proposal next week to share data with the science group.
This story was originally published November 10, 2020 at 3:56 PM.
