Wake students will return for in-person classes in 2 weeks. Many parents back return.
Students in North Carolina’s largest school system will return for in-person instruction the week of Feb. 15.
The Wake County school board voted 8-1 on Tuesday to have PreK-3 students and K-12 special-education students in regional programs return in two weeks for daily in-person classes. Students in grades four through 12 will return on a three-week rotation of in-person and online classes.
It will mark the first time that Wake high school students have had in-person classes in nearly a year.
The majority of Wake’s 161,650 students opted to stay with in-person classes this semester. The remaining 48% will take online classes only in the Virtual Academy program.
“In order for a district to be proactive, we have to take some steps forward, and it’s a scary step,” said board member Monika Johnson-Hostler. “It’s a step that I can certainly tell you isn’t a step that I’m making lightly or with ease.“
The board had initially planned to vote on the recommendation next week but added it to Tuesday’s agenda. Superintendent Cathy Moore said that more details on the return plan will be presented to the public Friday.
Jim Martin was the lone no vote, citing how the district can’t guarantee sufficient social distancing in all K-3 classrooms.
“Without the commitment to rigorous social distancing, I will be having to vote no on this plan,” Martin said.
The board asked Moore to maximize social distancing to the extent practical at schools where principals say it will be a problem.
The return plan comes as a new district survey of 33,000 parents shows many families want to return to in-person instruction as soon as possible and not wait until COVID-19 numbers go down or the vaccine is more widely available.
But a recent staff survey of nearly 10,000 employees found there are serious concerns about how safe it is to reopen school buildings.
State leaders want schools to reopen
Wake’s vote comes as state leaders are lobbying local school districts to resume in-person classes. Many school districts are offering in-person classes but some, such as Wake County, have paused in-person instruction due to COVID-19 concerns.
On Tuesday, the state Senate Education Committee passed a bill that would require all school districts to offer at least some in-person instruction. The bill would require the option of daily in-person classes for special-education students and at least some in-person classes for other students.
Also on Tuesday, Gov. Roy Cooper and State Superintendent Catherine Truitt signed a joint statement strongly encouraging, but not requiring, school districts to offer in-person instruction.
Moore pointed Tuesday to the urging from state leaders who say that studies show schools can safely reopen as long as they follow proper safety measures.
Moore also said they’ve moved past the post-COVID holiday spike and that the district has had success recruiting more substitute teachers to staff schools.
“We want to acknowledge the obvious,” Moore told the board. “The conditions for returning to in-person instruction are better than they were in January when we last met.”
All North Carolina public schools suspended in-person learning in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Wake started bringing back elementary and middle school students in late October for in-person classes.
But due to issues such as difficulty finding enough substitute teachers, Wake had students return from winter break in January using only online classes.
Parents speak out
To help school leaders decide on a plan for resuming in-person classes, Wake surveyed parents and employees. Wake has 161,000 students, so it got responses from around 20% of families. The questions about which return plan was supported was asked only of those families who are not in the Virtual Academy.
▪ 90.8% in the parent survey said they’re very or somewhat comfortable with returning all students to school buildings as soon as possible even if it meant returning on rotations of in-person and online courses.
▪ 70.3% in the parent survey said they’re very or somewhat comfortable with returning all students to school buildings as soon as possible even if recommended social distancing can’t be guaranteed.
▪ 63.4% of parents said they’re not comfortable with remaining in remote learning until vaccinations are more widely available.
▪ 58% of parents said they were not comfortable at all with remaining in remote learning until the county’s COVID-19 numbers come down.
Support for returning to in-person learning was highest among elementary school parents,
Some board members raised concerns about the survey because people could take it multiple times. But Brad McMillen, assistant superintendent for data, research and accountability, said he was not concerned about the integrity of the results.
School employees worried
Wake NCAE says schools shouldn’t resume in-person instruction until school employees are vaccinated. These safety concerns are echoed in the staff survey:
▪ 81% said they’re concerned that students won’t follow safety protocols.
▪ 88% said they’re concerned about not having enough health safety members.
Employees were also less positive about their physical and emotional well-being than when they were surveyed last spring.
But at the same time, many employees said they’re worried about the negative impact on students from not returning.
Attendance and grades down
The switch to remote instruction has resulted nationwide in a drop in student performance this school year. New data presented on Tuesday showed that it’s an issue in Wake County, as well.
Wake saw the average fall semester grade for the four core courses of language arts, math, social studies and science drop to 80-81 in middle schools and 77 in high schools. It had been four points higher in the fall semester of the 2018-19 school year.
More students are also failing courses now.
The percentage of F grades in core courses rose from 5-6% in the 2018-19 school year for middle schools to 13-15% this fall. In high school, it rose from 7-11% two years ago to 15-19% this fall.
There’s a connection between lower grades and lower attendance. The average number of absences is up this year, especially among Black and Hispanic students.
Change in return plans
The state is requiring middle schools and high schools to provide 6 feet of social distancing between students in classrooms. That distance is recommended but not required in elementary schools.
The original plan for the spring semester was to have Wake fourth and fifth-grade students return for daily in-person classes. They had been attending on a rotation of one week of in-person classes and two weeks of online courses.
But some teachers raised concerns about not being able to maintain 6 feet of social distancing in fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms that can have more than 30 students.
In a district survey of elementary school principals, only 9% said they could provide 6 feet of social distancing in the entire school if all grades levels had daily in-person classes. But it rose to 81% if fourth- and fifth-grade students attended on rotations that reduced their class sizes.
“Most of our elementary schools can do better with social distancing if K-3 is daily but fourth and fifth are on rotations,” said board member Christine Kushner. “I think that’s a very sound compromise on the staff’s part to make that recommendation to us so that we can have elementary schools be back with social distancing being more robust and more doable.”
This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 3:43 PM.
