Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board delays decision on in-person classes one more time
Update: The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board has rescheduled its planned vote on returning students to school in person. The decision is now scheduled for Feb. 4.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board members agreed not to reschedule spring break Thursday, but delayed setting a schedule for students to return to in-person learning until February.
This should be the last time the board delays that decision, Joal Broun said as she and other members wrestled with how to keep students and staff safe but also meet students’ educational, social and emotional needs.
“I think it’s important for the board to say what we’re going to do,” Broun said. “There has to be some clarity for parents, for teachers, for staff, so they can look forward to what’s going to happen.”
The decision to keep spring break on schedule — March 29 to April 2 — means students won’t return to a Plan B hybrid of in-person and remote classes until at least April. It’s not clear yet whether high school students will return to their classrooms at all.
Board members and district officials are monitoring several criteria, including COVID cases in Orange County and surrounding counties, where many teachers and other staff members live.
Board members said their decision also will depend on how quickly teachers and staff are able to be vaccinated, and on what happens with college students returning to campus at UNC-Chapel Hill.
School board to consider plans in February
The board will consider two options at its Feb. 18 meeting:
▪ Option B: Students in grades pre-K-2 return to a hybrid schedule of in-person and remote classes on April 19. Students in grades 3-8 return to a hybrid schedule on April 26. High school students remain in remote learning through the end of the school year.
▪ Option C: All students return to a hybrid schedule on April 12. The district is not recommending this option, because it would create scheduling, transportation and other challenges, administrators said.
Students would be placed in either Cohort A or Cohort B when they do return to school in person. Cohort A would attend classes in person on Mondays and Tuesdays, while Cohort B would attend in person on Thursdays and Fridays. Students would attend remotely on days they are not in in-person classes and on Wednesdays while staff cleans the schools.
If the board decides instead to keep all students remote for the rest of the school year, Assistant Superintendent Patrick Abele said the district could look at holding some drive-by events and other ways for them to engage with their schools. The district also should consider learning pods or other programs to help at-risk students, he said.
The board had planned earlier this month to bring students back in March, but the state’s rising COVID-19 numbers gave them pause.
Orange County was reporting 525 cases for every 100,000 residents in the last 14 days, state data showed Thursday — higher than the 420 cases for every 100,000 residents reported Jan. 2.
However, the number of positive COVID tests has started to decline, to 10.3% statewide Thursday, compared with a 16.5% positive testing rate reported Jan. 2. Orange County’s positive testing rate fell from 6.3% on Jan. 2 to 3.8% on Thursday.
Even if it’s for only nine weeks, bringing back students in April would offer some benefits, school board Chair Jillian LaSerna has said. Kindergartners, sixth-graders and ninth-graders have never been inside their new schools, she has noted, and high school seniors are missing out on important social aspects of their final year.
The district will be ready whenever the board decides reopening is safe, Superintendent Nyah Hamlett said.
“As it relates to between now and (June), we’re really going to be focused on clear communication to kind of mitigate some of the fear and anxiety that’s out there,” she said. “We’re really going to be focused on learning loss and social and emotional support.’
School districts weigh options
Many North Carolina school districts already on a hybrid schedule returned to remote learning in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases over the holidays. Wake County schools will remain in remote classes until at least mid-February.
The Durham and Orange County school districts, like Chapel Hill-Carrboro, also have been remote since March. Orange County’s school board decided this week to bring kindergarten and first-grade students back to a hybrid schedule Monday. Students in grades 2-12 are not expected to return to in-person classes until April.
The Durham school board voted this month to keep students in remote learning for the rest of the school year.
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 7:49 AM.
