Timing up in air for Fort Mill secondary schools to return to 5-day, in-person class
The return to normalcy for high schools and middle schools in the Fort Mill School District will likely be delayed more than it already has.
In October, Fort Mill School District Superintendent Chuck Epps told the school board that middle and high schools would return to five-day, in-person instruction “at the end of the first semester,” with a target date being Jan. 26.
On Tuesday, Epps told school board officials that date may have to be pushed back.
“As we’ve said all along, our goal is to do (full in-school teaching),” Epps said Tuesday, per a video recording of the meeting. “As we’ve also said all along, we would only do it if we were ready safety-wise. Right now, quite honestly, it does not look like that’s going to happen.”
Epps told the board that an announcement on whether five-day, in-person instruction will begin on Jan. 26 will be delivered on Monday (Jan. 11) or Tuesday (Jan. 12).
“We may be all year in A/B; we may be in virtual,” Epps said. “I mean, but it’s going to all be based on what the climate is at the time. So when people are assuming that we’ve already made the decision, the assumption is not true.”
Elementary school students moved from a hybrid model — which alternated between in-person and virtual instruction — to a full in-person setup four weeks into school, The Herald previously reported. That move was planned over the summer.
Middle and high school students remain in the hybrid setup.
As of Tuesday, the Fort Mill School District has reported 86 students and 33 staff members with active cases of COVID-19. There’s an active case at every district school except Tega Cay Elementary School, its online dashboard shows.
Epps confirmed at the Tuesday board meeting that Fort Mill middle and high schools have done the “prep work” necessary to facilitate five-day, in-person instruction by Jan. 26, even if meeting that target date isn’t likely. That prep work includes installing desk shields in classrooms — a process that began earlier this week.
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 5:20 PM.
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