North Carolina public schools ordered to close for 2 weeks due to coronavirus
North Carolina’s 1.5 million public school students will have the next two weeks off in in an attempt to try to halt the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus.
Some individual school districts, including Wake County and Johnston County, announced Saturday that they would close through at least March 27 as a precautionary measure. But Cooper made it a statewide mandate on Saturday when he signed a executive order requiring public schools to be closed through March 27.
“We are seeing increased anxiety, fear from parents, from teachers, from superintendents across our state,” Cooper said. “We need a period of time here to assess the threat of COVID-19 and to make sure that we have a coordinated statewide response to deal with the fallout that comes when you don’t have children in school.”
Wake is moving up spring break (which was supposed to start the week of April 6), all remaining teacher work days and using any remaining bank time. Johnston County initially said it would use teacher workdays and move up spring break to cover the next two weeks but later said that due to Cooper’s executive order they’ll decide how to designate the days later.
Wake and Johnston said they are not sure when schools will reopen. Wake is North Carolina’s largest school system with nearly 162,000 students.
In addition to the public schools, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh announced Saturday it’s closing all its schools for two weeks. The diocese covers the 54 eastern counties in the state.
Wake teacher tests positive for COVID-19
Wake’s announcement on Saturday comes after it had said Friday night that closing for a short period of time could do more harm than good.. But by Saturday, the district had changed amid complaints from many parents and teachers and news that a teacher had been confirmed with a case of the disease.
The teacher is now among at least 26 cases statewide of people testing positive for COVID-19.
“Saturday, public health officials notified our district that a staff member associated with Fuquay-Varina Elementary School tested positive for COVID-19,” Wake said in the announcement. “Our decision to close all schools has been difficult.
“Despite our desire to follow guidance from health officials as we collectively work to minimize the impact of this pandemic, we also want to listen and be responsive to the feedback from our families and staff. We realize that our decision to close schools presents various hardships for many of our families.”
Wake’s decision to not close schools sooner drew complaints Saturday from Robbie Jaeger, a parent at Fuquay-Varina Elementary.
“This is my daughter’s elementary school,” Jaeger tweeted Saturday. “Even after most of the surrounding counties shut down their schools, it took an elementary school teacher testing positive for #COVIDー19 for @WCPSS to take preventative measures. Incompetence.
Cooper said Saturday that the positive test at Fuquay-Varina Elementary was not a reason for his statewide order to close schools. But he said he wanted uniformity among the state’s 1.5 million public school students instead of having scattered school closings.
“This is the decision that no one wanted to see happen, but it was the right decision,” State Superintendent Mark Johnson said Saturday.
Schools look to feed children during break
The majority of North Carolina’s public school students qualify for free-and-reduced price lunch and rely on meals at school. Wake had cited those issues Friday for not closing, including how “when schools are closed for extended periods, many of our students do not have access to healthy food.”
“These decisions will also be tough on working parents and children who get their meals at school. We are working on efforts to deal with these challenges,” Cooper said.
Johnson cited how districts are doing innovative things to feed students such as using school buses to serve students at home.
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Wake school leaders argued Friday that students and most school employees aren’t at high risk of contracting COVID-19. But Wake’s initial decision to stay open drew many complaints online.
“Shame on you, WCPSS. This is an unprecedented time,” Erin Callahan Tillman, a parent, posted on Facebook after Wake said it would stay open. “ We know so little about this virus. Close the schools and wait for further information instead of putting everyone at risk. Sure do hope that no one DIES because of your idiotic decision.”
Wake teachers normally keep their complaints private, but several voiced them on social media when it looked like there would still be classes held.
“As a teacher in Wake County Public Schools I cannot begin to describe how upset I am about this decision,” Haniah Lerner posted on Facebook. “ The county couldn’t have made it clearer to ALL staff how little they value our lives and well-being then if they had screamed it in our faces.”
With schools now closed for at least two weeks, and potentially longer Wake said they’ll have information soon on how the closing will affect employees.
“Please know that we are doing everything we can to identify solutions and will provide you with additional information as soon as it is available,” Wake said Saturday.
Cooper said Saturday that teachers would still be paid during the next two weeks.
This story was originally published March 14, 2020 at 3:09 PM with the headline "North Carolina public schools ordered to close for 2 weeks due to coronavirus."
