Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board weighs benefits of remote vs. hybrid classes
Remote learning is working for many Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools students, but not for the youngest, those with special needs or those whose parents have to work, interim Superintendent Jim Causby said.
“There’s nothing that can ever replace a quality teacher in front of a child, because that’s just the way it works,” Causby told the school board Thursday.
The board could discuss the possibility of returning at least some students to hybrid classes — a mix of in-person and remote learning — on Oct. 15.
The district’s nearly 12,300 students have been in virtual-only classes — what the state refers to as Plan C — since the school year began Aug. 17. The timeline now is for all students to remain in Plan C until at least Jan. 15.
But North Carolina school districts are now allowed to reopen schools for daily in-person instruction for elementary students, or what’s referred to as Plan A, starting Monday. Gov. Roy Cooper is leaving the decision about whether those students return, and when, to the state’s school districts.
Schools are also permitted to operate under Plan B, or a hybrid model of in-person learning, with social distancing requirements and capacity limits, along with remote learning.
In all cases, students and staff are required to wear face coverings.
Thursday, Causby offered a plan for starting up athletics and in-person driver’s education for roughly 200 students who have completed the virtual program.
The district could begin athletic workouts and tryouts for volleyball, cross country and field hockey, assigning athletes to pods of six to eight students, on Oct. 19, he said. Other sports would add their workouts and tryouts over the next several months.
Hybrid or remote decision
Returning students and staff to the classroom is not a simple decision, Causby said.
Orange County’s percentage of positive test results over the last 14 days is around 4%, below the 5% threshold, he said. However, the county has been at 101 new cases per 100,000 in population over the last 14 days, “which to me is unacceptable,” he said.
Orange County had 2,703 positive cases as of Thursday, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Roughly 47% of those cases are among those ages 18-24, while only 7% involved those under age 18, the data showed.
The district also has to ensure it can meet five requirements for preventing widespread COVID-19 infections, he said: face masks, physical distancing, hand hygiene, contact tracing and disinfection.
Every school needs a full plan for students, from the time they get on the bus or arrive at school until they get home. The district will have to “seriously beef up our custodial operation” to properly disinfect the schools if students and staff return, he said. Food service and transportation planning also would be needed.
Teachers would have to teach both in-person and virtual-only students in the same class if the board chooses to implement a hybrid model. Teachers also would be considered “essential employees” and would have to work in person at their schools, he said.
A summer survey found that about 60% of parents were interested in a Plan B hybrid model. The district will survey parents, students and teachers again this month to find out their interest now in hybrid and virtual learning.
Orange County’s school board voted Tuesday to bring back pre-K students and those in self-contained exceptional children’s classes on Oct. 27. All teachers, except those with documented health concerns, would return to the classroom by mid-November.
All other county district students would return to hybrid classes in the second semester, starting Jan. 25.
Wake County will bring its PreK-3 students and K-12 special-education students in regional programs back to in-person, hybrid classes on Oct. 26. The students would move to daily in-person classes Nov. 16.
Wake’s middle school students would return to hybrid classes Nov. 9, and fourth- and fifth-grade students would return Nov. 16. The district also would offer an online-only Virtual Academy program.
Health data, infection protocol
Chapel Hill-Carrboro, Orange County, Wake County and Durham Public Schools are among 50 school districts statewide that are working with the ABC Science Collaborative, a medical and research group, to determine when and how to return to school and at what capacity.
Orange County’s districts also are working with the local Health Department, which would be responsible for supporting school nurses, doing contact tracing, and determining the best course of action if students or employees get sick once they return to class.
On Thursday, the board had multiple questions for the collaborative’s leaders about whether younger children would follow masking and hand hygiene practices, and about COVID-19 testing.
Some schools are requiring masks unless children are eating lunch or drinking water, said Danny Benjamin, collaborative co-chair and and deputy director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Other schools are including mask breaks if children can be outside and physically distance, he said.
The risk of removing face masks at lunch can be mitigated by having all the students eat at once, six feet apart and without talking, in about 15 minutes, he said. Then, the class can put on the masks and socialize before returning to their schoolwork.
The highest risk to students, staff and teachers is in the community, he said.
Testing all students would be expensive, with low positive rates, but could be useful in situations where masks are not practical, said Kanecia Zimmerman, a collaborative co-chair and associate pediatrics professor in Duke University Medical Center’s Division of Critical Care Medicine.
Teachers, especially in the exceptional children’s classes, could wear additional protective equipment, such as surgical masks and face shields, if students can’t or won’t wear masks, Zimmerman said.
What’s next: Superintendent, finances
Board members also will meet three times in closed session over the next week to interview candidates for superintendent. The first meeting will start at 2:45 p.m. Friday, followed by additional meetings at 8:15 a.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7.
At the board’s next regular meeting, on Oct. 8, the board will hear a report about the external financial review that was launched in the spring.
Information about how to join those meetings can be found online.
This story was originally published October 2, 2020 at 6:25 AM with the headline "Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board weighs benefits of remote vs. hybrid classes."
