****UPDATE: The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools system has since changed its plan for the fall of 2020.****
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education unanimously approved a hybrid instruction model for the upcoming school year at its latest meeting.
District leadership favored a schedule where students will receive both in-person and remote instruction during the fall over a traditional operations plan or an exclusively remote plan when it met on July 9. While the full CHCCS Remote Learning Plan is being finalized, the schedule for students’ return next month is now set and establishes schools will be no more than 50 percent full at any time.
To accommodate state requirements of no remote learning in the first week, CHCCS schools will hold orientation the week of August 17 with staggered entrances. 20 percent of students will come to campus each day of the week, with each student only coming for one day in the week. The orientation will be for students to reacquaint with teachers and receive instructions on how the school year will unfold. Kindergarten students would begin school on August 24.
In the following weeks, in-person instruction will be emphasized for the elementary schools, with kindergarten students through 5th grade students being split into two cohorts. One group will receive in-person instruction on Mondays and Tuesdays, while the other receives it on Thursdays and Fridays. When not receiving in-person instruction, students will be doing remote learning.
Wednesdays will be reserved for cleaning each campus, according to the CHCCS plan.
Middle school and high school students would be receiving remote instruction following orientation. All middle students would be transitioned to a similar cohort style of in-person instruction by Week 5 of the school year. All high school students would be transitioned to the cohort model of in-person instruction by Week 7.
According to the plan, exceptional students with adaptive curriculum would be placed in appropriate cohorts or be able to begin in-person instruction four days a week beginning in Week 2.
This reopening plan would take CHCCS up to the beginning of October, with options to speed the process up or slow down implementation depending on the state of the ongoing pandemic.
According to district staff, the approved proposal was crafted by a task force consisting of more than 100 staff, students and community stakeholders. When weighing the elements of instruction and other operations, said CHCCS Assistant Superintendent Patrick Abele, the group considered 19 different criteria, like equity, impact on families, flexibility and budget feasibility.
Chair of the Board of Education Mary Ann Wolf said ahead of the meeting the district received lots of input from the CHCCS community about its wishes and needs. She said the board and district staff are operating to take as much into account as possible.
“We know there is not a perfect plan,” Wolf said, “because we are not living in times where that is possible. But we’re going to do the very best we can to make sure we’re thoughtful about our students and always keeping safety in mind for students and staff.”
Interim Superintendent Dr. Jim Causby echoed those thoughts, saying he received an email with 47 specific questions about a return to in-person instruction ahead of the meeting. He said while there is still much to determine, the board’s approval of a return plan is the first step to helping CHCCS students restart their education.
“This is the foundation and it does not answer all the questions. But it does say what school would look like so parents can begin to plan. We know there will be hundreds of questions, but we will begin discussing all those ifs-ands-and-buts and work with the principals to consider every issue that has to be done.”
CHCCS had already passed the base requirements for the 2020-2021 school year as laid out in North Carolina’s Senate Bill 704, which added five days of remote learning throughout the year. But the new Remote Learning Plan to be adopted by the district is a more comprehensive shift from the current state guidelines for how to hold instruction this year while also accounting for public health concerns.
Further guidance from Governor Roy Cooper’s office and the state Board of Education is expected to be revealed later this week after being delayed since July 1. Abele said the district went ahead and worked to choose an instruction model to start preparing its schools for the return students. When the state guidelines are released, local measures are allowed to be more stringent in protecting public health, but must meet or exceed the state’s plan.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board will meet again on Thursday this week to approve its Remote Learning Plan ahead of the state’s deadline of July 20.
To view the full July 9 meeting of the CHCCS Board of Education, visit the district’s website.
Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.
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I wouldn’t trust the CHCCS board to sweep the classroom floor, never mind run the school district in a pandemic.
agreed
This article is old news…Board Meeting coming Thursday night, July 16th…they are likely to accept Superintendent’s recommendation that CHCCS opt for “Plan C” and go 100% remote learning for first 9-weeks.