Both the Chatham County Schools and Orange County Schools systems approved plans to move into in-person instruction for their younger students on Tuesday night.

Orange County Schools shared an announcement with its community shortly following a special meeting of its school board. All self-contained Exceptional Children students and preschool students will return to classrooms at the start of the second nine-week set of the school year on Tuesday, October 27. The board also approved students in all remaining grades returning to their various campuses at the start of the second semester in late January and teachers returning to classrooms by mid-November.

Superintendent Dr. Monique Felder presented the options for how to return elementary, middle and high school students under the hybrid learning model, which will deliver both in-person and remote elements of instruction.

“These options were developed by principals who lead the respective grade levels,” the district shared on its website, “and also took into consideration the groups of students who are most in need of returning to in-person learning, for example, [Exceptional Children] students, those enrolled in CTE courses and our youngest students in OCS.”

Orange County Schools also said Felder’s recommendations were assisted by health experts, guidance from other districts currently open under Plan B and input from staff and family surveys. The district has operated entirely under remote learning since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak in North Carolina.

In Chatham County, the school board also voted to approve a schedule to begin hybrid instruction. According to the Chatham News + Record, the district will similarly move Exceptional Children students and preschool students into Plan B, as well as K-2 students. Those groups will begin this model of instruction following the original nine weeks of remote learning and start on Monday, October 19. All remaining Chatham County Schools students will stay in Plan C, or fully remote learning, until January 2021, as decided by the school board the previous week.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and state health officials announced on September 17 said school districts could begin holding instruction in Plan A models beginning October 5. They pointed to emerging data indicating younger children are less likely to experience or spread the coronavirus, as well as the importance of education on children’s development, as reasoning for the shift from a statewide learning model.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, the other district in Orange County besides OCS, approved a plan for fully remote learning to last through at least January 15, 2021. Upon Cooper’s announcement about the option to move to Plan B, Interim Superintendent Dr. Jim Causby told parents the school system maintains its plans for remote instruction. The CHCCS Board of Education is set to meet on Thursday, but its agenda does not show any discussion of moving to a Plan B learning model.

Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.

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