Beaufort Co. schools haven’t heard from 300+ students during coronavirus closure. Why?

When S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster closed all public school buildings in March, most Beaufort County School District students managed to transition to online learning. But more than 300 haven’t been in contact with their schools at all for the past two months, according to district officials.

The majority of the district’s 22,000-plus students were able to move to online learning during the coronavirus shutdown under the district’s technology plan, which provides an online device to every student from third through 12th grades.

For those without a device or internet access, the district provided paper packets of instructional materials and assignments that students could pick up and turn in at regular intervals.

If students didn’t contact their teachers online or pick up packets, district social workers and counselors made further attempts to contact families, superintendent Frank Rodriguez told school board members Tuesday.

In all, the district did not make contact with 341 students, he said Thursday — a total that was much lower than the estimate he gave board members Tuesday — that the district had failed to reach between 800 and 1,100 students.

“It’s just shocking to me that that many students would go off to a vapor world where we can’t contact them any more,” board member David Striebinger said Tuesday.

Elementary schools across the district have the highest rates of no contact, Rodriguez said. The district provided The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette a count, by school cluster, of students who have not been contacted:

• Whale Branch Cluster: 97% of students contacted, 38 students not contacted

• Beaufort Cluster: 98% of students contacted, 79 students not contacted

• Bluffton Cluster 98% of students contacted, 167 students not contacted

• Battery Creek Cluster 99% of students contacted, 28 students not contacted

• Hilton Head Cluster 99% of students contacted, 29 students not contacted

“In some cases, we are finding that families have moved out of the county, or are in town but have moved out of the home they were living in before,” Rodriguez said. He added that the district is still receiving paper packet work from students.

Both the district and outside groups have attempted to get students online during school building closures.

Schools have extended WiFi connections to their parking lots so students can submit work from their cars, and Hargray began offering free internet service to households with K-12 or college students in March after a meeting with Rodriguez.

Since March, Bluffton Realtor Catherine Donaldson has been running Kindles for Kids, a grassroots GoFundMe effort that’s raised nearly $30,000 to buy devices for Beaufort County’s youngest students: the students in second grade or younger who did not take home devices when schools closed.

So far, Donaldson has distributed more than 800 Kindle Fire tablets — which are e-readers produced by Amazon that cost about $50 and can connect to the internet, display documents and send emails — to elementary schoolers across the county.

While the school year will end June 2, several questions remain about instruction in the summer and fall.

Chief instructional services officer Mary Stratos said Tuesday that the district is “looking at” starting summer programs on June 8, following two district-wide school surveys for administrators.

Under the district plan, virtual high school credit recovery and middle school content recovery programs will run from June 8-30. Elementary reading programs and fourth- through eighth-grade remediation will run from July 6-30, and algebra boot camp and the Sea Coast School for the Arts program will run from July 20-30.