COVID-19 cases up, school board nixes in-person learning for now
COVID-19 cases up, school board nixes in-person learning for now by Larry Chowning –
The Middlesex County School Board voted unanimously Monday to delay the opening of schools for students to Aug. 31 and to use “virtual” instruction for at least the first six weeks.
The motion approved by the board stated, “In consideration of current Virginia Department of Health (VDH) information, Middlesex County Public Schools will open under (state) phase 1 guidelines for the first six weeks.”
The board approved in July a “hybrid” school opening that would start Aug. 24 and include staggered four-day-a-week classes — two days of face-to-face in-school instruction, two days of virtual instruction and Wednesdays with no instruction and used as a teacher workday.
After listening to Three Rivers Health District Director Dr. Richard Williams Monday, the board reconsidered its July plan and voted to go virtual for the first six-weeks and after that revaluate the rest of the school year.
Dr. Williams presented a chart showing the current spread of the virus throughout the state and “Middlesex is at substantial (spread level) and we are trending steady,” he said. “Using VDH metrics, Middlesex is at 18.57 cases per 100,000 people and has been going up the last nine days.”
A recent VDH school opening guidance document was presented by Dr. Williams. He said the guidance document is “not meant to be hard prescriptive (for instruction) — but it pretty much is.”
The document rates areas in the state with COVID-19 spread — low, moderate and substantial. “I would say by the region our communities are experiencing substantial spread,” he said.
This document suggests that school systems with “substantial spread” adhere to phase one criteria, which calls for virtual instruction for most students.
Dr. Williams warned school officials that “If you do elect to do in-house instruction under the current (substantial spread) situation you will likely have (COVID-19) outbreaks in the schools and it becomes even more important that you need to be close (work) with the health department.”
After Dr. Williams left, School Superintendent Dr. Peter Gretz said that he has done “a lot of reflection” concerning the direction school opening should go. “When every single health and medical provider tell me we should not go back to (in-house) school unless we can provide our students, faculty and employees with 100% protection from the virus, I tend to listen,” he said.
Dr. Williams had told the school board that it only takes one breakdown in a virus preventive program — someone not wearing a mask or a breakdown in social distancing — for the virus to enter the schools and to spread.
Board Chairman Claudia Soucek read a passionate letter to the board and public, “In my eight and a half years on this board as well as in my 29 years as an educator, this is the most difficult decision I have been involved in making,” she said. “No previous issue has required me to make decisions that would seriously impact the health of my community.
“I believe that having students in school face-to-face with their teachers and their peers is the best environment to positively move students forward in their education,” she said.
“I appreciate the many emails and phone calls I have received encouraging the board to one perspective or another,” she said. “All are valid and all present challenges. The preparation that has been made this spring and summer by our staff to ensure a positive opening is extraordinary.
“I am heartened by our staffs who are willing to step back into the classroom, on our buses, and in our cafeterias to meet the new challenges with out-of -the-box creativity and care for our students.
“Unfortunately, this is not the time to bring our students back in light of the information and the advice of our health officials,” she said. “Remote learning has its challenges and consequences, but now is the time to come together, to put down our differences and make the best out of this health crisis.
“Each of us will need to lend helping hands in order to bring our students and families to positive solutions to this year’s challenges,” she said. “Use our websites and social media to help one another.
“Homework may not be so easy for some of us. Reach out just as you do on Middlesex gifts and wishes,” she said. “I see this as an opportunity for our community to come together in ways we never have before.
“Keep the positive attitudes, reach out to others and never feel you are the only one with an issue. There will be others! Be the answer to our challenges and be apart of the solutions!”
Jamaica District school board member Elliott Reed made the motion for school instruction to go virtual for the first six weeks and Hartfield representative Jim Goforth seconded the motion.
