Three biggest takeaways as Beaufort County schools prepare to reopen in the fall
Beaufort County schools will reopen in the fall with students able to choose between in-person and virtual instruction, superintendent Frank Rodriguez told school board members Wednesday night.
The news comes two days after South Carolina state superintendent Molly Spearman unveiled a list of “best practices” for fall classes, recommended by the 13-member committee of educators dubbed AccelerateEd.
The district is following many of these best practices in its preliminary fall reopening plan, which is subject to change if coronavirus cases continue to rise in the county.
“The challenge here is trying to piece together opportunities that meet the needs of our families and students, and at the same time meet the needs of our employees with their own personal situations and conditions they have,” Rodriguez said.
Here are the key takeaways from Rodriguez’s presentation:
In-person meetings for students, athletes delayed to at least July 20
Students were slated to return to classrooms July 6 for the first time since March for the district’s K-8 summer reading camps — but on Thursday, the district delayed the program until at least July 20.
That delay was the result of new information from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, which classified counties as high, medium or low risk for the spread of coronavirus in a Monday memo to the Department of Education.
Beaufort County was classified as high-risk, as were all of South Carolina’s coastal counties, due to a high volume of new cases, an increased rate of infection and a high percentage of COVID-19 tests coming back positive over the last two weeks.
“Our No. 1 priority is protecting the health and safety of our students and employees,” Rodriguez said in a Thursday press release. “The DHEC data we received this morning on Beaufort County’s increasing COVID-19 infection rates were disturbing, to say the least. We will continue to monitor DHEC’s new weekly metrics and make the best decisions we can to keep everyone safe.”
In-person, virtual class options
According to Rodriguez, the district’s remote learning in the fall is “going to be a little different than the virtual learning experience we just went through.”
Chief instructional services officer Mary Stratos said Wednesday that the district is hoping to pair with K-12 Learning, a popular virtual curriculum provider for South Carolina’s charter schools, for the fall.
The district will also begin a S.C. Virtual Franchise for high school credit-bearing courses.
“I have to educate you to know if you choose virtual, it’s going to be a little different,” Stratos said. “That’s another campaign we’re running as well, so you can make a better decision as a parent.”
Details on what face-to-face instruction will look like in the fall are still unclear.
A survey sent to parents to gauge opinions on the fall has received more than 5,000 responses as of Wednesday night. So far, 70% of respondents favor face-to-face instruction, while 30% favor virtual; 68% agreed they would send their children back to school when buildings reopened.
The district presented several face-to-face instruction scenarios in the survey for parents. None got a majority consensus:
49% of parents supported reopening schools, with students and staff using personal protective equipment, on a normal schedule starting Aug. 17;
39% supported reopening schools with PPE on Aug. 17 using an A/B schedule, meaning the student body would be split into alternating days to attend school.
22% supported reopening schools with PPE on Aug. 17 using a half-day schedule, where students would attend either morning or afternoon classes;
39% supported resuming remote learning and reopening schools later in the fall with PPE;
36% supported maintaining remote learning for the entire fall semester and reopening schools in January with PPE.
The survey is still open, Rodriguez said. It was sent to the email parents registered with PowerSchool.
Questions remain
Board members had questions about relaxing uniform requirements, contingency plans to close schools after they reopen if needed, and the required infrastructure to support both virtual and in-person classes.
Rodriguez said Wednesday he anticipates getting answers on some specifics of the plan — for example, what to do if a student or employee tests positive for COVID-19 — in a call between superintendents and DHEC on Thursday.
He also said he plans to get more specific feedback from teachers at a Thursday meeting of the Beaufort County Teachers’ Forum and in a traditional survey similar to the one sent to parents.
The district is also considering dual enrollment options and optional abbreviated schedules for “graduation-ready” high school students, Rodriguez said.
This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 10:12 AM.