The Fort Mill School District changed its start date again. Here’s what else changes.
The Fort Mill School District didn’t drastically change its return to school plan in the wake of Gov. Henry McMaster’s call last week. However, when students return to school did change.
“We had a plan in place that we had developed several weeks ago,” district superintendent Chuck Epps said at a board meeting Tuesday night. “Since that time we’ve had such an increase in information.”
Epps presented a plan Tuesday night with two major differences from earlier presentations. One is a school start date of Aug. 31. That’s a week earlier than McMaster called for, but weeks later than the district had planned. Pushing a start date into September as McMaster called for would mean a year running to the end of June 2021.
The Aug. 31 date does give the district more time than prior approved calendars would.
“Really it’s about planning time and additional time just to get ready,” Epps said.
The second major change involves elementary school students who go in-person. The first four weeks of school for them now will be an A-B schedule similar to what is planned for middle and high school students. After four weeks, in-person elementary school students will go five days a week.
“We’re committed to the plan we had earlier, except we’re putting the adjustment at the elementary level,” Epps said.
In addition to a call for Sept. 8 as the statewide start date, McMaster urged school districts to offer full five-day, in-class options along with virtual ones. After months planning how the new school year might operate and sharing initial plans with parents, the district had to adjust after McMaster called for those changes last week.
The district sign-up window for the online Fort Mill Virtual Academy has already closed, but will reopen Wednesday morning through 6 p.m. Friday.
Epps said just Tuesday afternoon there was discussion about childcare for teachers.
“It looks pretty good,” Epps said. “Not ready to formally announce it, but I think we probably will be in the next day or so.”
Leanne Lordo, assistant superintendent, said plans include a program at the Anne Springs Close Greenway that is open to the public. District staff will get priority registration.
Teachers, parents make cases
Teachers and parents who addressed the school board Tuesday varied in what they want to see. Some don’t want to go to school. Some say in-person school is necessary.
Tracy Fisher said she has a dozen years teaching in the district. She requested that teachers who want it be given the option to work from home, and asked for affordable childcare options. She believes teachers should have the same virtual or in-person choices for school that other parents do.
“Many of our district’s teachers are working parents also,” Fisher said.
Alison Tracy-McHenry teaches special needs students at Nation Ford High School. She has concern for students who need hands-on education and may not understand or be able to comply with social distancing.
“We’re opening the doors to our most vulnerable students,” she said.
Parent Dana Boutwell has four sons, who attend from the elementary to high school. She said despite district efforts, her children weren’t learning this spring when school went virtual.
“The parents spoke out and 56% of us are comfortable and ready for our kids to be back to face-to-face learning,” Boutwell said. “They need this.”
Students have SAT and other concerns, she said, that are best addressed in-person.
“It’s not right for these children,” Boutwell said of virtual learning.
Teacher Denise Bard said not all teachers feel the same.
“There are teachers out there that want to go back to school, in the classroom, and be with our kids and teach them,” she said.
Bard said she is comfortable sending her children back to school.
“We should be in school,” she said. “That’s what we’re meant to do. There are things we teach in school every day that are not necessarily academic.”
Middle school teacher Hallie Blair said she measured out her room to see how much space students would have if they attended every day. It wasn’t much.
“My first job is to make sure my students are safe,” she said.
Blair believes parents and teachers want the same thing, even if they disagree on how it looks.
“We just want the best for our kids,” Blair said.
Charles Enlow said having students lift weights in an enclosed weightroom doesn’t allow for social distancing. Already the district has had positive tests during summer conditioning.
“It isn’t possible to do this in a boxed-in weight room,” Enlow said.
Enlow doesn’t want the risk for a high-risk daughter and his wife “to pretend things are normal.” He pointed to the the longstanding district motto: “children first.”
“How can you ask this of us?” he said of a return to school. “Children first should not be first to be part of the experiment to see how contagious this is.”
Constant plan review
School board chairwoman Kristy Spears said she has received hundreds of emails and replied to many of them. For most every one who wants five-day, in-class school, someone else wants virtual.
“Not everybody in here is going to be happy with whatever decision is made,” she said.
District staff say they are working hard to make the best decisions they can for as many people as they can.
“It is certainly uncharted territory,” said Marty McGinn, assistant superintendent. “Sometimes I feel like we’re swimming in chocolate milk. You can’t really see through chocolate milk, but you just try to keep swimming and get where we need to go.”
As with everything thus far with coronavirus, plans are set until they change again.
“We constantly are reviewing,” Epps said.
