Wake K-8 students to return to school. But high school students will stay online.
Wake County elementary and middle school students will start returning for in-person classes over the next two months, but high school students will stay with online classes into January.
The Wake County school board unanimously approved Tuesday a reopening plan that has PreK-3 students and K-12 special-education students in regional programs returning for in-person instruction on Oct. 26. They will be on a cycle of one week of in-person classes and two weeks of remote classes before switching to daily in-person classes on Nov. 16.
Middle school students also will return to school Nov. 9 for a three-week rotation of in-person and online courses. Fourth- and fifth-grade students will begin on that rotation on Nov. 16.
The board overrode the recommendations of district staff who wanted to keep students in fourth through eighth grades with online-only classes for the rest of the fall semester. But the board sided with staff in keeping high school students in online classes through the end of the semester in January.
“We owed our students and our staff and everyone involved some direction and some leadership and some guidance,” school board chairman Keith Sutton said after the votes. “I think we provided that this evening, and I’m sure that there will be many that continue to share their thoughts as we move forward to return to face-to-face instruction as soon as we can safely do so.”
The decision comes as some parents have demanded a return for in-person classes, while teachers and principals have urged that Wake slow down the return to in-person classes.
“Heartbroken. Educators are lifting so much right now we can’t stand up straight, and every level of elected officials has stepped away to just watch us fall,” Kristin Beller, president of the Wake County chapter of the North Carolina Association Educators, tweeted Tuesday night.
“No level of government willing to take responsibility for the safety of our community.”
Students in Wake’s new Virtual Academy program will continue to attend online-only courses. The majority of Wake’s 160,000 students signed up for the Virtual Academy, and according to a parent survey, will stay there for the entire school year.
Wake changes reopening plan
Last week, staff had recommended a plan that would have given all students at least some in-person instruction this fall. Instead, the new plan presented Tuesday would have kept fourth through 12th grades on remote learning for the rest of the semester.
Several board members complained about getting multiple reopening plans in the past 24 hours, including an updated plan Tuesday afternoon.
“We need information in a timely fashion,” said board member Jim Martin. “I’m very sorry to be as frustrated as I am. But I take governing seriously and we need to act in a much more effective business strategy because the plans we are making have major costs and major health and safety risks. It is our duty to do this well.and right, not rushed.”
Superintendent Cathy Moore said changes were recommended Tuesday because of the difficulty of providing social distancing in grades 4-5 and high school due to large class sizes. She also said bringing those grades back would increase the workload on teachers who would simultaneously teach Virtual Academy students, as well as those students rotating between in-person & remote classes.
In a survey, the majority of Wake’s principals supported keeping grades 4-12 in remote classes this semester — ranging from 61% in elementary school to 81% in high school and 86% in middle school.
Some Wake County high school students are scheduled to take state end-of-course exams this semester. They will be asked to come on campus in late January to take the state exams.
But in a pair of separate votes that went 5-4, the board voted to give some in-person instruction this fall to the older elementary students and to middle school students.
“I believe that having kids in the schools and giving those teachers face-to-face contact with those students the opportunity to connect, the opportunity to assess, the opportunity to see things that they cannot see over a computer screen is important,” said board member Chris Heagarty.
Heagarty also called out Martin’s criticism of the reopening plans. Heagarty accused Martin, who has been the most vocal about his concerns about reopening, of dominating the discussion and not showing respect to other board members and staff.
It won’t be five days a week of in-person classes for Wake County students, though.
Wake plans to have a weekly districtwide “asynchronous learning day” where in-person students won’t go to school and online students won’t get live classes. Instead, on that day, Wake says teachers can assign a variety of activities and include instructional resources such as recorded instructional videos, assigned activities, off-line assignments or meetings with small groups.
The weekly day of no live teaching is supposed to help give teachers more planning time.
States eases reopening rules
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper initially allowed school districts to reopen in August under Plan B, which allows schools to have in-person classes if they limit the number of students on campus and on school buses, or Plan C, with only remote classes.
Wake, like many districts, opted to start the school year only using remote classes. Wake is the state’s largest school district.
On Sept. 17, Cooper announced he will allow districts to open elementary schools on Plan A starting Oct. 5, if their school board opts for that plan. This option has no capacity restrictions, so elementary students could get full-time, daily, in-person instruction.
Some districts, like Johnston County, have moved to take advantage of the state’s flexibility to bring elementary students back in October for daily classes. But other districts, including Durham, Chatham and Chapel Hill-Carrboro, have decided to keep their students online for the rest of the semester.
Elementary schools that use Plan A will still have to follow new safety protocols, such as requiring students and employees to pass daily temperature checks and health screenings before they’re allowed on campus. Students and staff will also have to wear face coverings at school and on school buses.
School employees and students can request exemptions from the mask requirement if they have medical issues.
In preparation for the vote, a Wake County school board committee reviewed draft health safety guidelines earlier Tuesday that includes disciplinary consequences for not wearing face coverings. Willful repeated violations could lead to employees being fired and students not allowed to attend in-person classes.
This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 9:36 PM with the headline "Wake K-8 students to return to school. But high school students will stay online.."
