Fort Mill school leaders discuss full return to school amid COVID -- only if it’s safe.
Fort Mill School District officials want students back in classrooms full-time, but only when it’s safe.
Superintendent Chuck Epps updated the school board and public Tuesday night on plans for when to reopen schools full time. Elementary students are back to five days a week now. Middle and high school students remain on AB schedules, rotating days between class and virtual studies.
“There’s a lot of confusion out there,” Epps said. “Particularly on social media. It was another exercise to me in not believing everything you read on social media.”
Epps he saw statements that simply weren’t true: that there would be a decision at Tuesday’s meeting on when to return; that there’s pressure on the board and superintendent related to reopening; that the district isn’t respectful of teacher health.
“This is our position,” Epps said. “It’s been our position since day one. Every school in South Carolina, every school in America and I assume across the world, the globe, wants to get back to normal. As safely as we can. That’s been our goal the whole time.”
When elementary students went from hybrid to in-person models two weeks ago, it was part of the reopening plan laid out this summer. So was a district review at the end of the first quarter.
“Nothing has gotten offline from what we’ve said we were doing,” Epps said. “We know students need to be back in school. We know that. Everybody wants them back.”
Parent school model concern
Parent Montrio Belton told the school board Tuesday night he and his wife have two doctorate degrees, and law degree and both law and educational experience between them. Upper level English and math classes, though, are hard.
“It has been extremely challenging for us,” Belton said of the AB schedule. “We are struggling as parents to provide the support that my child needs.”
Belton said he’s had to cancel professional appointments to spend time teaching his child material that may be introduced one day, then tested or due the next time a student returns to a classroom.
“I wish schools were open five days,” Belton said, “but I do understand the difficult decision.”
His family suffered through COVID-19 this summer, he said, and buried a close family friend just this past weekend who died from the disease.
“I also understand it’s a very dreadful disease,” Belton said.
Belton said he’s heard not only from parents at the high school level, but others struggling to teach middle school Spanish or early reading to their children. He said teachers are doing an outstanding job, but asked for grace on items like test scores of 0 for missed assignments.
Belton isn’t the only one with concerns. Board chairwoman Kristy Spears said community feedback has been constant.
“They are split,” she said of opinions on school schedules. “And they are from teachers, and they are from parents, and they are from community members. And they are, please go back. And they are, please stay AB. They’re from elementary, they’re from high (schools). We do not have in the country consistent agreement of the right answer of how to solve this thing.”
Belton and board members asked for the same courtesy — grace — as schools and families navigate the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s time to preach to the public and to us as a collective group, patience and tolerance,” said board member Michele Branning. “This is not something that is normal.”
Return to school decision
Epps said community feedback is about 50-50 on whether to return to school in full.
“From my chair it’s not a political decision,” he said. “It’s a science and numbers decision.”
The district puts out public information each Friday on current COVID cases in schools. Epps said as of Tuesday there were 13 students and three employees with positive tests.
The district relies on case numbers and South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control guidelines on when to reopen in full, based on viral spread levels in York County. Elementary students now back to five days for a couple of weeks provides one of many data points, Epps said.
“Every week presents more data and more information,” Epps said. “But I can tell you that we hope to go back. We hope to go back as soon as we can safely go back. It’s just better for students.”
The Fort Mill district has a significant portion of its student base, about 30%, enrolled in the new Fort Mill Virtual Academy. The district asked parents and students who opted for the virtual academy at the elementary and middle school levels to do so for the full school year, since teachers would be assigned to that model. High school students could choose virtual or in-person models by semester.
For hybrid model students, Epps said he doesn’t know when to expect they might return full time in class. He said he would update the board and community at monthly board meetings, and more often if needed. Epps said there would be time between any announcement of a return to school and that start date.
“I’d be real surprised if we recommend anything under a two-week leeway,” he said. “With parents, with daycare situations, with work situations.”
There is, of course, another possibility. Viral spread could increase again and cause a situation where schools go online like they did this past spring. There would be no two-week wait, there.
“If we have an outbreak, and it can happen quickly, we may have to shift quickly,” he said.
