A sign points to the Clarke County School District administrative offices. On Oct. 8 CCSD Superintendent Dr. Xernona Thomas announced Nov. 9 as the planned return to in-person instruction for prekindergarten through eighth grade students, and CCSD Board of Education District 2 Representative Antwon Stephens was not aware that this decision would be made so early. “I was originally thinking we weren’t going to be even looking at going back to school until January, to give it time to just sort of watch the numbers, see how things go,” Stephens said. “We’ve already been warned by health officials that there is supposed to be a second wave during the wintertime, which is also flu season. So I believe going back in November is just the wrong thing to do.” Photo by Krista Shumaker
On Oct. 8 during a Clarke County School District Board of Education meeting, CCSD Superintendent Dr. Xernona Thomas announced that Nov. 9 will be the date for the return of face-to-face instruction for prekindergarten through eighth grade.
According to a letter from Thomas sent to CCSD parents on Oct. 9, families will have the choice for their children to continue virtual learning or return to in-person learning.
“Based on the decreased COVID-19 numbers in Athens-Clarke County, the Clarke County School District believes it is in our students’ best interest to return in person to provide the highest level of academic and social support,” the Oct. 9 letter stated.
CCSD BOE District 2 Representative Antwon Stephens believes the choice to reopen may not be safe.
“I don’t think (this reopening) can happen safely. We’ve seen all across the state of Georgia where schools have gone back, they have closed down, many of them closed down numerous times now for outbreaks,” Stephens said.
According to the CCSD, the reopening is planned to be close to full scale with pre-K-8 students receiving in-person instruction Monday through Friday.
“Students returning for in-person instruction will attend school Monday-Friday. After-school programs will not be available. Students in pre-K-8 will have a virtual option for families who wish to continue learning from home,” the Oct. 9 letter stated. “We are confident in the safety procedures and guidelines in place to ensure a safe learning environment.”
Stephens feels that a hybrid learning model, utilizing both online and in-person learning throughout the school week, could help make this return to school safer, but this decision will need cooperation from both the CCSD Administration and the BOE.
“It’s still too serious of a situation to be looking at a full term, a full scale reopening, and I really believe that we should go back to what I was talking about earlier this year, that hybrid option. We’ve had teachers offer pods and to supervise pods and things like that,” Stephens said. “It has to get to the point where we are willing to do innovative thinking together and I just don’t think it has gotten there yet.”
“It has to get to the point where we are willing to do innovative thinking together and I just don’t think it has gotten there yet.”
— Antwon Stephens,
CCSD Board of Education District 2 Representative
Whitehead Road Elementary School and Burney Harris Lyons Middle School parent Anita Aubrey believes that a hybrid option isn’t what students or teachers need.
“I think it still should be all or none personally. The families that need to be in school can make that decision and be in school. I don’t know that a hybrid situation is the right situation for the teachers because then so much more is expected of them,” Aubrey said. “I would like to know, and we’ve been given no information on the fact that if we choose all virtual, who are we going to be with? Because I also really don’t want it to turn into us having a robot teacher. My hope is that at least there is an actual Clarke County teacher who needs to be at home for whatever reason that can still be in charge of teaching these kids.”
According to Cleveland Road Elementary School parent Emily Gearhart, her son’s experience in virtual school has been difficult.
“It has been challenging getting him to stay focused on a tablet, he’s not excited to wake up and go to school because it’s not terribly engaging,” Gearhart said. “His teachers have been absolutely wonderful and very understanding, but I wouldn’t call it fun. It’s just been difficult, and then I have a two-year-old so trying to keep her away from her brother while he does school has also been a challenge.”
“It has been challenging getting him to stay focused on a tablet, he’s not excited to wake up and go to school because it’s not terribly engaging.”
— Emily Gearhart,
Cleveland Road Elementary School parent
Stephens believes that there are other ways to fill the needs of CCSD families rather than returning to full time in-person instruction.
“I’ve talked around in my district to figure out what else parents would be looking for,” Stephens said. “I know some need childcare, so when I talked about that pod option, with the school district actually having as big as a base as it has, we could have full scale pods going all across town, we could have outside learning going on all across town, we have enough school buildings with outdoor gazebos and things like that, and chairs can be set up outside. So there are other options there that a lot of people support, not just going back to school full scale. I don’t think that’s what the community is begging for.”
1 comment
[…] News […]
Comments are closed.