DOE sets deadline for Beaufort, Jasper students to be in school, barring ‘obstacles’
Beaufort and Jasper County School Districts were told by the state two weeks ago that they had to offer in-person instruction for students no later than Sept. 14 — but that’s changed, according to new requirements from the South Carolina Department of Education.
Both districts will now re-evaluate every two weeks with DOE whether to offer in-person education. The process will begin “with the district’s official start date,” according to the DOE website.
“Unless major health and safety obstacles exist, it will be a requirement” for districts to reopen buildings two weeks after their official start date, DOE spokesman Ryan Brown said Wednesday.
Whether districts will reopen buildings “will be decided on an individual basis,” Brown said.
Brown said that the change was made to accommodate different districts’ start dates. Jasper County schools will begin classes Monday, while Beaufort County schools will begin Sept. 8.
Beaufort’s start date was changed last month, following a recommendation from S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster to do so.
Both districts have announced they will begin the school year with fully online and remote instruction.
The DOE announced the changes on Aug. 10, but did not formally notify Beaufort County School District of the change until Aug. 12, according to state superintendent Molly Spearman’s letter to district superintendent Frank Rodriguez.
Spearman and David Mathis, the state’s deputy superintendent who leads the team reviewing district reopening plans, will represent the DOE while re-evaluating reopening plans.
According to an Aug. 10 report from South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control, all 46 counties in South Carolina are currently considered “high-risk” for the spread of coronavirus.
The DHEC classification system has three metrics:
Number of new cases in the past two weeks;
Whether new cases have increased, decreased or stayed level over two weeks;
Percent of positives among people tested for COVID-19 in the past two weeks.
As of Thursday, Beaufort County has reported 4,242 cases of COVID-19 and 58 deaths. Jasper County has reported 609 cases and 16 deaths.
Brown said the DOE will use DHEC’s risk-measuring system while evaluating districts’ in-person options, along with other documents.