Johnston students still will attend in-person classes, but the original plan will change
The Johnston County school board rejected a plan Tuesday to keep all students in remote instruction into March, but agreed to change the reopening plan that students will use next semester.
Johnston County students had been set to resume in-person instruction on Jan. 19, following a switch to remote instruction in mid-December. The school board voted 4-3 on Tuesday against extending the use of online-only learning for all students into the end of the third quarter, which runs to March 12.
“We have an educational crisis taking place right now in our country and in our county,” said board member Lyn Andrews. “We owe these children an opportunity to learn to read. We owe them the opportunity to a sound basic education. It’s not going to happen virtually.”
In a separate 4-3 vote, the board voted to resume in-person instruction on Feb. 1 for K-12 students under a hybrid plan that uses a mix of in-person and online classes. Pre-K and special-education students in self-contained classrooms will still resume classes next week.
Elementary students won’t get daily in-person classes now as was originally planned, but the board majority said it’s better than the alternative — online-only classes — that the minority wanted.
K-12 students will have two days a week of in-person classes and three days of online classes. Pre-K and special-ed self-contained students will have four days a week of in-person classes.
The votes came after a debate over whether the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Johnston County warranted delaying the return of in-person instruction. The district’s middle school and high school principals had supported keeping students in remote learning through the end of the third quarter.
“The wise decision, the smart decision for the safety of our staff in looking at all the data is Plan C (remote instruction),” said board member Kay Carroll. “We all understand that there’s not a great deal of transmission among students. That’s not the issue. The issue is our staff, the older folks.”
Andrews, Ronald Johnson, board chairman Todd Sutton and Mike Wooten voted against staying with only online classes. Carroll, vice chairwoman Terri Sessoms and Tracie Zukowski voted to stay with Plan C, or online-only classes.
Johnston County is the state’s seventh-largest school district with nearly 36,000 students this school year.
School reopening debated
Before the vote, Dr. Kanecia Zimmerman of the ABC Science Collaborative presented research indicating that it’s safe to reopen schools if safety measures are taken such as wearing face coverings, maintaining social distancing and washing hands regularly. The ABC Science Collaborative was formed by Duke University and is advising school districts on how to handle the coronavirus.
Zimmerman pointed to various studies, including a study of 11 North Carolina school districts done by the ABC Science Collaborative that found no cases of student-to-adult transmission of COVID-19.
“With mitigation measures in place .... in-school transmission, which is the most important and relevant marker, is rare, even when cases in the community come into the school buildings,” Zimmerman said.
Critics question the validity of the North Carolina study, noting how it’s based on data through October, when COVID rates were much lower across the state and country.
Some people have said schools shouldn’t be open for in-person instruction until teachers and other school employees are vaccinated.
Dr. Marilyn Pearson, Johnston County public health director, said it’s difficult to say when they will be able to vaccinate district school employees. She said that COVID vaccine doses are still in short supply. The county had its first in-person vaccine clinic Tuesday morning for people 75 and older and quickly ran through 500 doses.
Johnston County has the 10th most COVID cases in the state with Pearson saying hospital beds are filling up. Pearson also said that children ages 4 to 17 account for 12% of the county’s cases.
The percent of positive test results has risen to 16.1% in the county.
“Our health care system is maxed out in this county,” said Carroll, the board member.
School districts weigh in-person class options
Johnston’s decision comes as school districts across the state are weighing whether it’s safe to have students on campus while COVID-19 numbers are soaring and before the vaccinations are widely administered.
North Carolina saw more than 10,000 new COVID cases reported each day from Thursday through Saturday.
The Orange County school board voted Monday to only bring K-1 students back for part-time in-person instruction after a COVID-19 testing program, air purifiers and a plan for having lunch outside the classrooms are in place, The News & Observer reported. Older students will stay with only online classes into at least late March.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board voted in December to continue using only online classes until at least March.
The Durham school board voted last week to continue with only online classes through the end of the school year, the N&O previously reported.
The Wake County school board will hold a special meeting Thursday to decide whether to resume in-person instruction next week. In the meantime, Wake is encouraging all of its employees to get tested for COVID-19 this week.
COVID cases rise in Johnston
Johnston County, like other districts across the state, were required to stop in-person instruction in March. The district resumed in-person instruction in late September for some special-education and Pre-K students and October for other students.
Elementary students, special-education students in self-contained classrooms and Pre-K students have been getting daily in-person instruction. Middle school and high school students have been getting two days a week of in-person classes and three days a week of online classes.
But amid concerns about a post-Christmas COVID spike, the board voted to switch to remote learning from Dec. 14 to Jan. 15. District leaders also cited how Johnston County is in the red category in the statewide county alert system, meaning there’s critical community spread of COVID.
“Our students need to be in school,” said Andrews, the board member. “I understand the critical situation that we’re in. We closed the schools in December and it did not help. The rate continued to climb.”
Johnston is among 17 school districts and 11 charter schools taking part in a pilot program giving COVID tests to students and school staff who have symptoms or who are close contacts of someone who has tested positive.
Staffing issues from COVID
Shortly before Christmas, John Krol, a longtime teacher and athletic coach at Swift Creek Middle School in Clayton died from COVID-19 complications, the N&O previously reported. The board opened Tuesday’s meeting with a moment of silence for Krol.
In a district survey, school employees cited fear of losing additional staff and family to the virus as a concern.
The district has 131 vacancies among non-certified staff, which includes employees like cafeteria workers and bus drivers. That’s 50 more than the same time last year. There are also 66 vacancies among certified staff, which includes teachers, compared to 30-40 same time last year.
The vacancies, resignations and teachers under quarantine have strained the district’s ability to staff schools. The district found enough substitute teachers to fill 46% of positions in December, compared to more than 70% in December 2019.
“If they are telling us that they cannot operate safely, how do we ignore what our principals are telling us?” said Sessoms, the vice chairwoman. “They are the people having to implement what we decide. If they are saying they cannot do it, why are we not listening?”
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 9:20 PM.
