Wake will bring students back for in-person classes. But part of the plan may change.
Some Wake County school board members are balking at having 28 or more students in a classroom at a time when COVID-19 cases are at record levels, making them feel uncomfortable with offering daily in-person classes for fourth- and fifth-grade classes.
Difficulty finding enough teachers due to COVID-19 quarantines is causing the district to suspend in-person instruction for the next two weeks.
The plan is to resume in-person classes on Jan. 20, and board members indicated Tuesday they’re willing to back in-person instruction for most students on Jan. 20 and for year-round students on Jan. 25.
But several school board members said Tuesday it doesn’t make sense to have that many students in classrooms for the fourth- and fifth-grade classes. . Unlike K-3 classes, they don’t have class-size limits, and more students means it’s harder to social distance.
“We’re looking at a very, very different reality right now,” said school board member Heather Scott. “It’s very hard for me to see 28 to 29 fifth-graders in a classroom — fifth-graders who are often taller than their teachers.”
Board members floated the idea Tuesday of continuing the plan of having fourth and fifth grades remain with the system used since November — a mix of in-person and online classes. This has kept in-person class sizes below 20 students in many cases.
But other board members argued it would put some students, particularly from disadvantaged populations, further behind academically if they’re not getting daily face-to-face classes.
“If there’s a child not getting online, but they will come to the classroom and they do have a teacher that will actually come to the classroom and teach them, I just cannot think of any good reason not to teach that child in person,” said school board member Roxie Cash. “We have so many kids who are not getting on remote.”
In a potential compromise, Superintendent Cathy Moore said she’ll report back next week on the resources it would take to keep class sizes at around 20 students while still offering daily in-person classes for those two grade levels. The board is expected to schedule a meeting next week.
In-person classes resume Jan. 20
Wake plans to offer daily in-person classes for PreK-3 students and a mix of in-person and online classes for middle school and high school students starting Jan. 20. Only the 77,284 students in the Virtual Academy won’t have any in-person classes next semester.
High school students are set to resume in-person instruction for the first time since March 13, when schools were initially closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. But attendance has been down, and more high school students have been failing classes than normal during the use of only online learning.
High school and middle school students will attend on a rotation of one week of in-person classes and two weeks of online classes. School leaders say they can’t offer daily classes for those students because of state rules that limit school capacity to ensure there’s at least 6 feet of social distancing between people in classrooms.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is allowing only elementary schools to operate at full capacity. In those schools, 6 feet of social distancing is recommended but not required in classrooms.
Moore said Tuesday that conditions haven’t changed significantly enough for administrators to recommend delaying the resumption of in-person instruction. She said they can safely operate schools as long as they follow the 3 Ws of wearing a mask, waiting apart from each other and washing hands regularly.
“We cannot stop staff or students from becoming infected off campus,” Moore told the board. “But the effective use of the 3 Ws does allow us to dramatically slow the spread in schools if we implement them correctly.”
To help secure enough substitute teachers, the school board approved Tuesday a plan to pay substitute teachers more. Wake will also launch a new recruitment campaign to attract more subs, called “We Need You They Need You.”
In-person instruction debated
Some people say Wake should stay with only online classes until school employees are vaccinated.
“A handful of deaths among the WCPSS community from this virus is TOO MANY,” Elizabeth Horky wrote in comments submitted to the board meeting. “The death of a teacher or classmate will have significant long-term consequences for countless individuals. “
Wake County health officials say they don’t have enough doses yet to begin vaccine distribution to “frontline essential workers,” which includes teachers and other school support staff, The News & Observer has reported.
Moore said the district is talking with the Wake County Health Department about when district employees will be vaccinated. But she warned Tuesday it could take “a couple of months” for some educators to get their shots.
Some people also say that it’s hurting students academically and mentally by keeping them away from their classmates for in-person instruction.
“We all know the social importance of in-person learning,” Elizabeth Webb, a parent, said in comments to the board. “I cannot stress enough the difference in my children when they go to in-person school. THEY NEED this!”
Safety concerns addressed
School administrators and district advisors tried Tuesday to ease concerns that parents and employees may have about reopening for in-person classes.
North Carolina COVID-19 hospitalizations hit a record for the fourth day in a row on Tuesday, The News & Observer reported. The state reported a record 9,527 new cases reported on Friday with more than 9,000 additional new cases on Saturday.
But Kanecia Zimmerman of the ABC Science Collaborative said the group’s review of North Carolina districts found no cases of child-to-adult transmission of COVID-19. The ABC Science Collaborative was formed by Duke University and is advising school districts on how to deal with the pandemic.
Even though the percentage of positive COVID tests is 16.2% statewide, Moore said the Wake County rate of 9.2% is significantly lower.
Paul Koh, assistant superintendent for student support services, said the district has only had to close one classroom due to a COVID-19 cluster of five or more cases. He said three classrooms were closed due to lack of staff.
The COVID cluster was at Lynn Road Elementary School in Raleigh. Moore said it’s leading to a review and possible changes in how meal times are held. Meals are among the few times that students and staff are allowed to remove their face masks.
“We’ve been consistently told by health officials that one cluster since we’ve returned to in-person instruction is actually quite remarkable,” Moore said.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 4:21 PM.
