NC district brings some students back to daily in person. Others will wait until fall.
Orange County elementary students and K-12 students with a special education plan will return to in-person classes four days a week on April 7, school board members decided Monday in a unanimous vote.
The board also voted unanimously to keep middle and high school students in the Plan B hybrid of in-person and online learning for the rest of the school year. All of the district’s roughly 7,500 students will be in remote learning on Fridays to allow staff time to clean the schools and teachers to plan or help small groups and individual students.
The plan is for all students to return to daily in-person classes when the new school year starts in August, the board decided in a third vote Monday. Students would still have to wear masks, except when sitting 6 feet apart for lunch.
Superintendent Monique Felder had recommended bringing middle and high school students back May 3 for a Plan A schedule, or daily in-person classes. But board members said the benefits of returning to Plan A this school year did not outweigh the potential costs.
It’s just “too much for everyone,” board member Will Atherton said, including high school seniors already planning end-of-school events.
“I just think the timing is not good,” Atherton said. “I have similar feelings to the other board members that trying to make this change while doing all the planning at the same time we’re asking about summer school, Saturdays, extended learning, trying to come up with new ideas to save time, and just not having the (educational) consistency.”
Under Plan B, middle and high school students are divided into two groups with each alternating between four days a week in-person Monday to Thursday, followed by four days of remote learning. Fridays are remote learning for all students in all grade levels.
Board Chair Hillary MacKenzie said she “is eager and excited to support Plan A” for middle and high school students in the fall.
“I just am going to feel better about being in Plan A when everyone who wants to be vaccinated is fully vaccinated, (and) when some of our students are vaccinated in the summer time,” MacKenzie said.
Bringing students back to school
Orange County brought back students in grades 2-12 to Plan B in-person and online classes earlier this month. The district also is offering an online-only Virtual Academy to students who don’t want to return in person.
Kindergartners and first-graders returned to a Plan B hybrid schedule on Jan. 25, and other students, including in pre-K and exceptional children’s classes, have been back since late October.
The board’s latest decision follows the passage of a state law requiring schools to offer Plan A classes to all elementary and special-education students by April 1.
Districts that also want to offer Plan A to middle and high school students must submit a plan to the state Department of Health and Human Services and work with the ABC Science Collaborative.
The state has received plans from 39 districts statewide planning to return middle and high school students to in-person learning, said Danny Benjamin, a co-chair of the collaborative, a group of science and medical experts.
Benjamin presented the board with the latest COVID-19 statistics and the data for districts that already returned to school. It shows that there is very little coronavirus transmission in the classroom or between students and teachers if everyone wears a mask and lunch is held outdoors or with 6 feet of minimum distancing, he said.
A recent Orange County Schools survey showed that roughly two-thirds of elementary school parents want their students to return to Plan A classes, Felder said. Among the high school families who were surveyed, about 35% want in-person learning, Deputy Superintendent Kathleen Dawson said, while another 46% want online-only classes.
A survey of teachers found 35% are “extremely uncomfortable” with their personal safety in an in-person classroom, Felder said.
Wake, Durham, Chapel Hill shift to classroom
Orange County, Chapel Hill and Durham were among the last districts in the state to return to at least part-time, in-person learning. Here’s what other Triangle districts are doing:
▪ Durham Public Schools: Brought its elementary students back for in-person learning four days a week on March 15 and its specialty high schools on March 18. Middle school students and the remaining high schools will start in-person classes two days a week on April 8.
▪ Wake County Public Schools: Began bringing back its students in grades preK-3 to daily in-person instruction in October. Fourth- and fifth-graders followed on March 15.
The school board met Monday to decide how to bring back middle and high school students to Plan A. The board voted to start Plan A for modified-calendar middle and high schools and early colleges on April 5, followed by traditional-calendar students on April 8. Year-round middle school students will return April 14 under the superintendent’s plan.
▪ Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools: The city school district brought most of its students back Monday to a Plan B schedule of two days in person each week.
Elementary students, students with specialized education plans, and children of district staff in grades preK-8 will transition to an in-person, four day a week schedule on April 5. Several dozen Adapted Curriculum students returned to in-person classes four days a week in December.
Middle and high school students will remain on the hybrid schedule.
▪ Chatham County Schools: The board voted Monday to start Plan A on April 12 for fourth- and fifth-grade students, as well as middle and high school students who have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or a 504 plan, The News & Observer reported.
The district’s other students will remain on Plan B.
This story was originally published March 22, 2021 at 11:07 PM.
