‘Flag in the ground’: Fort Mill now has a plan for a full return to in-person school.
Fort Mill could have all its in-person students back to class five days a week starting next semester.
“This would be assuming that the virus rate is not too high, we plan to go back at the high and middle schools at the end of the first semester,” Fort Mill School District superintendent Chuck Epps said Tuesday night. “Starting with the second semester. It may happen sooner.”
Elementary school students moved from a hybrid model, which alternated in-school and virtual lessons, to a full in-person setup four weeks into school. That move was planned over the summer. Middle and high school students remain in the hybrid setup.
Students enrolled in Fort Mill Virtual Academy remain fully virtual, and except for high school students will remain that way for the entire school year.
Epps told the school board Tuesday night he expects an Oct. 23 through Nov. 6 registration window for high school students to include all virtual and all in-person options for second semester, with no hybrid. That move is contingent on contained or reduced COVID-19 viral spread.
“If we go through this flu season and this viral season...we’re making a data driven decision on when to return,” Epps said. “That’s going to drive everything.”
Staff and school right now is set up for the virtual and hybrid models, which creates issues switching from the hybrid approach by the end of the calendar year.
“They’re issues with staffing, related arts,” Epps said. “We can fix things a lot easier in January than we can now.”
Epps said the goal has always been to get students back in-person, in-full. But only, he said, when it’s safe to do so.
“We know it’s better when kids are back, so that’s our goal,” Epps said.
There are issues to consider. Board Chairwoman Kristy Spears said full in-person means less space for students than a hybrid model, since hybrid alternates half the students each day. A coronavirus case in a hybrid setup with more space between students would be different from a case where a classroom is full of students each day.
“It necessitates more students in quarantine,” Spears said.
Epps said the district is working on desk shields and related measures at the middle and high levels that would allow students to more safely interact at three feet of distance rather than six.
Leanne Lordo, assistant superintendent of finance and operations, outlined about $2 million in CARES Act spending the district already claimed or intends to claim related to COVID-19. Everything from wipes, masks, sanitizer and water bottle stations to wi-fi hot spots and technology.
“We’re starting to get requests now from the schools as they’re going through the cleaning supplies,” Lordo said.
The district recently received 13 pallets of wipes.
“That was our second order,” Lordo said.
As for how long those pallets will last, she isn’t sure.
“That is the question right now,” she told the board.
Virtual students won’t be impacted if the district does ditch the hybrid model for second semester. It only will impact students enrolled in in-person school. The virtual academy will continue this year and quite likely, Epps said, into next school or beyond.
“I would venture to say it’s a certainty,” Epps said.
Conditions still could change between now and January, but the district intends to move forward as if all in-person students will attend five days a week once that semester starts.
“We’re putting the flag in the ground and praying that happens.”
This story was originally published October 20, 2020 at 7:15 PM.
