Rock Hill superintendent talks about first day of school, tracking COVID-19 data
At 1:47 p.m. on Tuesday, Rock Hill School District Superintendent Bill Cook had just pulled into a parking spot and was about to enter his seventh school of the day.
“I’m certainly hoping to round out this week with having been in every single one of our schools,” Cook told The Herald over the phone.
Tuesday marked many firsts for Rock Hill schools: It was the first time students and teachers carried out the district’s “C/A/B” schedule, where students receive in-person instruction on different days. It was the first trial run for the district’s Virtual Academy, a learning platform that over 39% of students will take advantage of all year.
And, generally speaking, it was the first look at what the district’s coronavirus-adjusted 2020-21 school year could look like.
In an interview with The Herald’s Alex Zietlow, Cook provided an inside look into how the district’s first day of school went.
The interview has been edited for brevity.
‘There’s a lot of excitement’
Zietlow: What are some midday reactions to the district’s first day of school?
Cook: Probably first and foremost, I’m seeing students and staff members and our administrators who are thrilled to be back together as one. To be able to interact with one another. To revisit those relationships. Most of us educators went into this business because of being able to impact and have those relationships with kids and other people. So there’s a lot of excitement. ...
Certainly having the opportunity for 6,700 of our students to go virtual has presented some unique opportunities for our learning in this mode. We’re still trying to get questions answered. A lot of kids and parents have questions about logging on this morning and attention to detail in that way. I’m just really proud to work in a district and to work with people who have never had this sort of launch to the beginning of the year, and they’ve done it so well. I’m just very proud.
Zietlow: How has virtual learning gone today?
Cook: A lot of families are communicating how appreciative they are to be able to have the opportunity to have their students and to be part of the virtual academy. ..
Right now, the biggest thing is getting families and kids connected with someone who could help them. We have a help desk, which is staffed by several people. ... We really have added additional support in those areas to get those questions answered, but with the numbers we’re talking about, it is (expected) for there to be a bit of a backlog, and we’re working as hard as we can to get it taken care of.
Getting data in ‘real time’
Zietlow: What is your schedule today?
Cook: Well I’m pulling into the parking lot of my seventh school today. I’m spending about 45 minutes to an hour at each one, checking in, seeing what they need. I got into 12 of our schools last week, so my goal as a superintendent has always been to be in every school in the district in the first week, and to spend some quality time and see what the kids are learning, seeing what teachers are teaching, seeing what administrators are working on and trying to offer any support that I can.
I’m certainly hoping to round out this week with having been in every single one of our schools. Our district staff was in every single one of our schools today, so someone from the district office was at every one of our schools today just to provide that next layer of support if needed. But again, our teachers have just done a yeoman’s job of really getting in there and making sure that classrooms were set up. That all the social distancing, hand washing, masks and all of our safety protocols are being utilized.
You know, we have kindergarten and 5-year-olds who are coming in, which is so exciting, for the first time. They’re needing lots of reminders (laughs). As one would expect. But our teachers are being so patient and doing a great job.
Zietlow: Looking ahead, I know South Carolina schools will be regularly reporting COVID-19 cases to DHEC. How will the Rock Hill School District keep track of these coronavirus cases?
(Note: Separate from the DHEC data, Rock Hill schools have a new dashboard that updates daily to show coronavirus statistics intended to fill in gaps compared to state data released twice weekly.)
Cook: We update our return-to-school reopening plan every Tuesday when the new DHEC information comes out. And we put that in our plan. We’re using these metrics to kind of measure our progress in the community, and then obviously to determine at what point we can get back to school full time with in-person instruction.
And then our lead nurse, Sadie Kirell, is working with our other school nurses. We have a school nurse in every one of our schools, which is not the case in a lot of districts and nation.
They have a great system that we use for every one of our schools, so on any given day, I know how many students and/or teachers or staff members have been quarantined or have tested positive. We know that data in as close to real time as possible.
So we have the DHEC metrics, and we’re using, posting and communicating those out. And then internally — because we have to monitor every classroom, every building, every division within our school district — we need that information as well. So we’re looking at a lot of different data points and using that to make decisions.
This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 5:39 PM.
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