Beaufort Co. schools restart live in-person, virtual classes for students in quarantine
Beaufort County School District is bringing back a virtual school option — but only for some students.
Superintendent Frank Rodriguez announced Tuesday evening that the district will offer live virtual instruction for students in quarantine, meaning teachers will hold class for in-person and remote students at the same time via Zoom.
Previously, teachers were posting recorded videos of lessons to their classroom sites for quarantining students to watch on their own time, which Rodriguez said was challenging as quarantines grew.
Last week, one in every eight students of the district’s roughly 21,500-student population was quarantining.
“It has become clear that operating with large quarantine numbers and having teachers try to record instruction and post it to Google Classroom is not sustainable or even perhaps effective,” Rodriguez said Tuesday.
He added that teachers requested the change to live instruction.
However, families who have asked the district to give them back a full-time virtual option — which currently goes against a state budget proviso that’s been hotly debated in recent weeks — might be disappointed.
“This is only for students who are quarantining as a result of a COVID-19 diagnosis or exposure,” district spokesperson Candace Bruder said Wednesday. “This is not a long-term virtual instruction option, nor will it be available to students who are not at school for reasons other than COVID-19.”
Educators who hold these “dual modality” classes will be paid a $1,000 stipend in December for the first semester, lining up with an April bill from the state legislature.
That bills bans schools from holding this type of class “unless it is reasonable and necessary due to extreme and unavoidable circumstances.” It also says that teachers who hold these classes must be paid extra for doing so.
The school board approved the stipend unanimously at its Tuesday meeting, agreeing to pay up to $2 million out of the district’s $82.1 million federal COVID-19 relief funding pot.
Teachers who are quarantining are expected to teach remotely as long as they are not ill, Bruder said.
At least one school won’t start using dual modality right away. The district announced Thursday that Whale Branch Middle School will move to fully-virtual instruction for a full week starting Friday; students will return to in-person classes on Sept. 20.
“With just over fifty percent of the student body in quarantine as a result of being deemed a close-contact of someone with COVID-19, the decision to transition the mode of instruction was made in order to mitigate any potential spread of the virus and ensure the continuity of learning for all students,” Bruder wrote in a Thursday statement.
Between Monday and Wednesday, the district logged 70 new COVID-19 cases, 64 among students and six among staff. There are 2,030 students and 29 staff currently quarantining, Bruder said.
Beaufort County School District has not made numbers available for COVID-19 infections and quarantines by school. However, Bruder said that among the district’s 31 schools, Bluffton Middle School, Whale Branch Middle School and Hilton Head Island Middle School have recorded the most new COVID-19 infections this week.
Since the school year started Aug. 16, the district has logged 740 COVID-19 infections. That’s a little over 3% of the district’s combined 24,400 students and staff.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 2:12 PM.