Clover district keeps COVID-19 return plan, moves first day of school to Aug. 24
At its monthly meeting on Tuesday, the Clover School District Board of Trustees made two key decisions that impact the upcoming school year.
Here’s what you need to know.
Clover commits to original return plan
The Clover School District committed to its back-to-school plan that was originally published and sent out to parents and faculty earlier this month.
The move comes less than a week after South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said he advised the state education department to deny any reopening plans that didn’t include five-day-a-week, in-person instruction at the outset of the school year. It also comes just hours after Vice President Mike Pence visited the state and told McMaster that he supports his plan to reopen schools to students after Labor Day.
The district’s final plan has three modes of instruction.
The three-tiered plan is similar to those submitted by Clover’s neighboring school districts, including in Rock Hill and Fort Mill:
Its “Hybrid Model,” which is what will be in place at the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, puts the district’s middle school and high school students on an “A/B/SEE” schedule: Half the students receive in-person instruction on Monday and Wednesday; half do so on Tuesday and Thursday; and select students will use time on Friday to get extra help classes and participate in small group learning. Elementary school students will receive in-person instruction five days a week under this model, but they’ll participate in school activities throughout the year with their “classroom family” only.
The district’s least-restrictive plan, referenced as the “Traditional Model,” allows all students in all grades to attend school every day, with the caveat that students follow health and safety protocols — including sanitizing classrooms and limiting large group gatherings in common indoor areas. Mask wearing is optional but recommended.
And its most-restrictive plan is called the “eLearning Model.” In this mode, all classes are virtual.
Clover superintendent Sheila Quinn recommended to the board that the district stay in its hybrid model. She said that plan best-positions the schools to respond to the changing threat of COVID-19. The motion passed.
“We feel like it is a responsible model,” Quinn said during the meeting. “It’s a model that allows us to pivot if things get better very easily to a traditional. It allows us to pivot eLearning if things get worse. And it allows us to be very responsive particularly to the families who have said that they want their kids to have some face-to-face time.”
After the meeting, Clover School District public information officer Bryan Dillon told The Herald in a phone interview that the district’s plan follows the guidelines put together by AccelerateED, the task force put together by McMaster.
“Our plan does have a five-day option, provided that the spread of the (virus) in the community is at a point where we feel that we can best serve all students and staff, and keep everybody safe and healthy at the same time,” Dillon said.
Clover adjusts school calendar
The district also approved a new calendar, one that effectively pushes everything back two weeks from its first coronavirus-adjusted 2020-21 plan.
In the new calendar, the first day of school is Aug. 24 — two weeks before Gov. McMaster advised last week, when he advocated for a start on the day after Labor Day (Sept. 8). Winter break will be Dec. 21-Jan. 4. Spring break will last from April 2-April 9.
The last day for high school students will be June 9, and the last day for the rest of the district’s students will be June 16.
Dillon said pushing the start date back two weeks gives the district’s schools time to prepare for the school year while also preventing the year from running too late into June.
“Additionally, with the creation of our Clover Virtual Academy, it allows two more weeks to train teachers to continue to develop the program,” Dillon said, “and make sure it is at our standard, which is excellence.”
For a full replay of the school board meeting, visit the district’s YouTube website.
.jpeg)