Schools around the state will be trying to implement plans to return students to school campuses after Gov. Roy Cooper and state legislators agreed to get students back in schools for face-to-face instructions.
Mount Airy City Schools just might be the model they want to consider following. That’s because the local city school system has been holding in-person classes five days a week for the entire school year.
“Our students have been five days a week since Aug. 17,” said Carrie Venable, executive officer of communications for the city schools. “We are the only school system in the state that has had students five days a week since August.”
She said at the beginning of the school year the system had about 75% of its students in schools, with 25% choosing to do remote learning. Gradually that in-person figure has grown to 85%, with a waiting list of students wanting to return to the middle school. She explained that because of social-distancing guidelines, the middle school does not have enough space to accommodate all of the students, though all other schools in the city have been able to accommodate students wishing to be on campus.
Student attendance has been so strong, she shared that, according to the website ncdemography.org, Mount Airy was one of only two school systems in North Carolina showing an increase in average daily attendance this year. Two months into the school year, the latest for which figures are available on a statewide basis, Mount Airy’s attendance was 2.6% higher than the same period a year ago. Elkin was the other school system, with a 1.5% growth.
The city has managed this without a single COVID-19 outbreak cluster.
Early on in the year, Venable and other school officials credited working with the Surry County Health and Human Services department as a key in successfully returning to school.
This week, she added another factor, what amounted to a dress rehearsal during the summer.
“The fact that we, in the middle of the pandemic, were able to offer summer courses…” and summer camps. She said with the relatively lower number of students for these programs, they essentially acted as a “trial run” for masking, social distancing, and other changes that would be needed for in-person instruction.
Among those changes, she said, has been the staggering of school bus schedules, with many buses running the same routes twice, limiting the number of youth and children allowed on, and similar measures.
The school system’s success has not gone unnoticed. Today several members of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, along with State Rep. Kyle Hall, will be touring the school system and meeting with local school officials to see first-hand what Mount Airy has been doing.
Venable said Dr. Kim Morrison just told several staff members the middle school may be able to accommodate all students wanting to return after spring break, which is March 15-March 19.
Surry County schools have been holding classes on campus as well, though on a staggered schedule which has seen some students on campus four days a week, others two days a week.
Dr. Tracey Lewis, director of communications/teacher recruitment & retention for the county schools, explained that system has had elementary school students in the classrooms Monday through Thursday, with Fridays considered a remote learning day.
For middle and high schoolers, those students have been split into two groups. One group has been attending in-person classes Monday and Tuesday each week, with another group attending Wednesday and Thursday, with Friday a remote learning day for all. She added that students who are among the “most vulnerable” population have been attending classes five days a week.
The county school board recently opted to change that schedule beginning April 12, eliminating the remote learning day. Elementary students will start attending class five days a week, while the middle school and high school groups will begin alternating in-person Friday attendance, while keep the other days as they are. The board made that decision prior to the governor’s announced plan to return the state’s youth to schools, so the county school board is scheduled to meet again today to consider additional changes to the rest of the year’s school calendar.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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