Some Johnston County students will get more days of in-person classes. Here’s the plan.
Johnston County elementary school students will get more in-person instruction starting March 1.
The Johnston County school board voted 5-1 on Tuesday to move PreK-5 students from two days a week of in-person classes to four days a week beginning next month. Students will learn from home on Wednesdays while school buildings are deep cleaned to address COVID-19 concerns.
“The board has made it clear they would like for us to remain in school,” Superintendent Eric Bracy said before the vote.
Bracy said they won’t have to provide social distancing on school buses or in classrooms for elementary school students.
Middle school and high school students will remain on a schedule of two days a week of in-person classes. They have classes on Mondays and Tuesdays or Thursdays and Fridays depending on their schedule.
Bracy said that the district can’t yet move middle schools and high schools to daily in-person classes due to state rules that require at least 6 feet of social distancing in classrooms.
Wednesdays will be an asynchronous learning day for all grade levels. Teachers will give students work to do from home those days.
Students who don’t feel comfortable returning for in-person classes can stay in the district’s all virtual option.
Vaccinations coming
Due to the pandemic, students have rotated between various school plans this school year. Johnston students returned for in-person classes this month after being in only online classes from mid-December through January, when COVID cases spiked.
The Johnston County Association of Educators had unsuccessfully urged the district not to resume in-person instruction until school employees were vaccinated.
Gov. Roy Cooper announced Wednesday that the state will expand vaccine eligibility to PreK-12 school employees starting Feb. 24. But in the meantime, he said schools can safely offer in-person instruction if they follow appropriate protocols.
Last week, Cooper and other state leaders urged school districts to offer as much daily in-person instruction as possible.
Other districts are reacting differently. When Wake County resumes in-person classes next week, PreK-3 students will have five days a week of in-person classes. But grades four through 12 will have a rotation of one week of in-person classes followed by two weeks of online classes.
