Wake County will increase in-person classes for students sooner than expected
Wake County Superintendent Cathy Moore says the school system will increase the amount of in-person instruction that students will receive in the coming weeks.
Moore said Tuesday that she will recommend moving to daily in-person classes for students in fourth and fifth grades who are not in the Virtual Academy. The change could begin as soon as March 15 after a vote at a specially called school board meeting next week.
Moore said staff also will present a plan March 16 for increasing how often middle school and high school students not in the Virtual Academy will get in-person classes. She said it won’t be daily in-person classes because of state social distancing rules, but will be more than currently allowed.
To help carry out the plan, the board voted 7-2 to give Moore authority to increase the amount of in-person classes, both for individual schools or districtwide. School board chairman Keith Sutton said the authorization will allow them to get students back into the building as quickly and safely as they can.
“This is a vote for us to get out of the way and let the superintendent do her job and do the job that we have hired her to do,” Sutton said. “To remove all of the bureaucracy and again function and operate in an efficient manner.”
Currently, only PreK-3 students and special-education students in regional programs are getting daily in-person classes. Other students are attending on a rotation of one week of in-person classes and two weeks of online classes.
‘Safely return more students’
Moore on Tuesday cited factors such as Gov. Roy Cooper’s recent request that school districts increase in-person schooling, improvement in the COVID-19 case data and how more employees are getting vaccinated.
“It will be awhile before we see normal again,” Moore told the board. “But we can begin to safely return more students to in-person instruction in the coming days and weeks.”
At the elementary school level, some fourth- and fifth-grade classes could have 30 or more students in them if they return for daily in-person classes. But Moore said that administrators feel it can be safely done.
“We are making this recommendation knowing that 6 feet of social distancing is not going to happen in most elementary schools, nor is it required based on state health guidelines,” Moore said. “Plan A includes minimal social distancing.”
Cooper would have to ease rules that require 6 feet of social distancing at middle schools and high schools before Wake would bring those grade levels back for daily in-person classes.
But Moore said that they can do things such as have two of the three groups in campus at the same time for in-person classes. This would work if a school has a large percentage of students in the Virtual Academy.
Another option, she said, could be to keep the three groups but rotate them so the students are having in-person classes every other week.
“One approach is not going to work for every school,” Moore said. “Some schools will look different from others. Flexibility will be critical.”
Lawmakers want more in-person classes
The motion giving Moore more authority mentions the state bill requiring school districts to offer in-person instruction to all students and daily in-person classes to special-education students. The bill was vetoed by Cooper amid concerns it would not lead to safe school reopening.
The Senate fell one vote short on Monday of overriding the veto. But the Senate will attempt again to override the veto.
Board member Chris Heagarty said they need to be planning for the additional students getting in-person classes if the bill does become law.
Board member Karen Carter voted against the motion, saying she felt there wasn’t enough transparency in the process.
Board member Jim Martin also voted no, arguing that some principals who have “the right connections” could get the changes they want.
“I don’t see any consistency to the planning, and I, for one, do not have confidence, based on what has been happening in the system, to feel like decisions are going to be made based on a clear set of criteria,” Martin said.
Thousands of teachers vaccinated
Some of Tuesday’s optimism is a result of of how much faster school employees have been vaccinated than expected.
Cooper opened up statewide vaccination eligibility on Feb. 24 to PreK-12 school workers and childcare workers. By the end of this week, the district expects 5,640 first doses to be given to school employees. Those employees will need to get second doses to be fully vaccinated.
A third vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is expected to arrive in North Carolina this week. The one-dose shot is also expected to expedite the vaccination process across the state, The News & Observer reported.
Wake County estimated that it has vaccinated a third of all qualifying educators after only six days, Matt Calabria, chairman of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, tweeted Monday.
“It is not unreasonable to think or expect that somewhere in the next month or so, that we really could be having all our employees here in the system vaccinated — at least those who want it,” school board Chairman Keith Sutton said Tuesday.
“Just a week or two ago that sounded impossible, but now it’s very realistic that all employees could be vaccinated in 30 to 45 days or so.”
Help for home-school kindergartners
As part of the planning for this fall, Wake is dealing for the potential return of families who opted to home-school their children during the pandemic.
Wake saw a drop in enrollment this school year, particularly in kindergarten. At the same time, there’s been a statewide surge in home-school enrollment.
Children who are home-schooled in kindergarten who then enroll in Wake County are normally placed in kindergarten before they can request to attend first grade. But for the 2021-22 school year, Wake says it will let those home-schooled kindergarten students go into first grade without having to request “whole grade advancement.”
School board members said the news will reassure families who plan to send their children to the district this fall.
This story was originally published March 2, 2021 at 6:42 PM.
