Middlesex parents receive word via email last week that new program starts April 12; may double days of in-person instruction
Middlesex parents receive word via email by Larry Chowning –
Middlesex County Public Schools (MCPS) officials announced March 10 that they plan to go to a four-day a week in-school instructional program starting Monday, April 12.
At a March 8 school board meeting, the Middlesex County School Board (MCSB) expressed confidence in the MCPS central office to decide when to expand in-school learning.
At the meeting, a parent spoke to the challenges she is facing having two high school students home alone and unsupervised on virtual learning days as she has to hold down a job. She said that before the pandemic they were both good students and “loved school.” Now both are failing and her son may not graduate, she said.
Another parent with a second grader said she was a single mother working two jobs “to make ends meet” and that virtual learning has hurt her child academically and emotionally.
After another parent broke down at the podium in tears begging for in-school instruction, Saluda District school board member Dr. Richard Shores said, “They (parents) are crying out for help and we have got to respond in a positive way.”
On March 10, Superintendent Peter Gretz introduced a four-day week in-person learning plan in an email to parents. It is published in full below.
Planning for potential four-day/week in-person learning
“The guidance provided for schools from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), Virginia Department of Health (VDH) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has continued to evolve, in some cases weekly. The CDC and (just yesterday) VDH have recently distributed new guidance for schools to consider in deciding when and how to open schools to in-person learning. Many divisions are just now beginning in-person learning, where we have been operating with the hybrid option (two days a week in-school and three days virtual) available to families since October.
“The most significant shift I see in the new guidance is the acknowledgement that schools are more safe than anyone in the public health community may have believed, originally. Infection and transmission among children is rare. Transmission from children to adults, and vice versa, is rare. Studies are continually being released that demonstrate that people are not getting COVID-19 in schools in VA, and children, in particular, are not getting it in schools.
“The Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has also released official guidance, including some helpful resources specific to helping schools open as fully and safely as possible. The AAP has given its strong recommendation that schools consider relaxing social distance (from six-foot to three-foot) requirements among masked children in schools, if necessary to bring them into school more robustly.
“Our leadership, with the support of our school board, is developing a plan to bring students back to school four days per week as soon as possible. The logistics of bus travel, distributing meals to a larger population of students, and reconfiguring classrooms to support safe distancing are among the many details we need to resolve. Our intention is to try to implement this new, four-day/week schedule after spring break, beginning on Monday, April 12.”
“IMPORTANT: We are building this new schedule with the assumption that those students who are currently hybrid, in-person two days per week will move to being in-person four days per week. Similarly, we will assume that those students who are fully remote will continue to be fully remote. If you desire to change your child’s schedule, please contact the school as soon as possible.”
