Beaufort County students could be back in school 5 days a week soon. Here’s the plan
Beaufort County schools will open their classrooms for in-person instruction five days a week starting Jan. 4, when students return from winter break, superintendent Frank Rodriguez announced Friday morning.
Students will be able to change their registration from virtual to in-person instruction or vice versa for the spring semester, which begins Feb. 2. The district will provide virtual-only classes through the end of the school year.
Parents can change their child’s spring registration starting Nov. 16 through Nov. 24.
Deputy superintendent Duke Bradley said teachers and principals had been clear about the “relative successes” and stressors of hybrid instruction, including the “complexity” of managing both virtual and hybrid classes.
Rodriguez said the district had considered a five-day return on Nov. 30, but heard concerns from school staff about the quick turnaround.
“I believe the Jan. 4 date allows time for those parents, teachers, students who are looking to get back five days face-to-face, (it’s) a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “For anyone who might still feel concerned about it, sort of a long runway of time to adjust.”
As of Oct. 19, 62% of the district’s 22,000-plus students were participating in hybrid instruction, which lets students attend in-person classes two days per week and virtual classes the other three days. The remaining 38% were completely virtual.
The district began offering hybrid instruction on Oct. 5. As of Friday, the district has reported 80 COVID-19 cases among students and staff since Sept. 28.
Four of the district’s six high schools have had widespread quarantines this semester due to COVID-19 cases at extracurricular activities, some of which took place prior to Sept. 28.
“What we and other districts are finding is that most COVID-19 cases among students and staff are from engagement in outside events and activities,” Rodriguez said in a Friday press release.
The breakdown of hybrid vs. virtual students varies wildly from school to school, with 82% of Hilton Head Island Early Childhood Center students in hybrid instruction compared to 21% of Whale Branch Middle School students.
All but two schools north of the Broad River — Mossy Oaks and Coosa Elementary — had fewer students attending hybrid classes than the district average. Every school south of the Broad River had more students attending hybrid classes than the district average.
The high rate of in-person students at south of the Broad schools, many of which are overcrowded, could make social distancing tough for students.
At an Oct. 6 school board meeting, district risk manager Jennifer Staton clarified that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control asked schools to maintain social distance “to the extent possible,” and to use protective gear, including masks, when distance can’t be maintained.
Under hybrid instruction, students and staff are socially distanced and wearing masks at all times.
“At this point, it’s not a huge problem to maintain six feet,” Staton said Oct. 6. “When we go back five days a week with in-person, it will probably become more of a challenge for the Bluffton schools.”
As of Thursday, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control classifies Beaufort County as “medium-risk” for the spread of COVID-19, with 150 new cases per 100,000 people, a “high” trend in new cases and an 8.1% positive rate among people tested for the virus in the last two weeks.