The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education adopted a recommendation from its superintendent to change its return plan for the beginning of the school year to an exclusively remote model.
The CHCCS board met virtually Thursday night to finalize its remote learning plan and to hear a recommendation from Interim Superintendent Dr. Jim Causby, who proposed the school district begin the first nine weeks of the school year with entirely remote instruction. This would fit the Plan C model all North Carolina schools have been instructed to consider, with Plan A being exclusively in-person instruction and Plan B being a hybrid of both.
The school board unanimously approved the recommendation.
This shift came after the school board had approved a Plan B model at its meeting the week before. According to Causby’s resolution with the recommendation, the district’s parents and staff members expressed strong concerns about the Plan B model and said they do not believe it is a safe option to protect public health. Causby said more than a third of staff members said they would want to work entirely remotely in order to meet their health accommodations, according to responses from a staff survey.
The superintendent also cited the Centers for Disease Control’s recommendation of COVID-19 positive test percentage be no greater than 5 percent in order to reopen schools. The positive percentage test rate for both North Carolina and Orange County as of Thursday is more than 8 percent.
“This started in March and I’m not sure things will change drastically in four or five weeks,” said Causby when asked about the length of nine weeks. “We need some time. If things change drastically, I’m willing to look at it and move back sooner. But I want to give us a period of time to look at [the data.]”
In the recommendation from Causby and during the meeting, there was mention of the district moving to a hybrid Plan B when the Plan C period ends. Families will also have the option of choosing a full-time remote learning plan for their children for the entire year.
Chair Mary Ann Wolf said the goal is to ultimately move to a Plan A or B into this school year. She said the state government’s recent school reopening guidance gave district staff more comfort with the idea of moving to a Plan C model. Many other board members voiced their support for a Plan C model and cited concerns from the community about students’ and teachers’ safety under a Plan B model in August.
Earlier on Thursday, the Orange County Schools district approved a recommendation from its superintendent to adopt an exclusively remote model of learning for the start of the school year. Dr. Monique Felder recommended four weeks of remote learning over concerns from COVID-19, also citing the goal of returning students to in-person instruction if the county’s coronavirus trends reverse.
CHCCS has not held in-person instruction since mid-March, after the district leadership required a remote learning model at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in North Carolina.
The full Remote Learning Plan discussed at the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools board meeting can be found on the district’s website.
Photo via the Town of Chapel Hill.
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