During Orange County Health Department’s second Public Health Chat, the superintendents of Orange County’s K-12 school systems talked about their plans to transition into hybrid, in-person learning models in January.
Since March, Orange County Schools and Chapel-Hill Carrboro City Schools have both been operating under Plan C – an exclusively remote learning model. However, as the spring semester approaches, both school systems are preparing to transition into Plan B, which would include in-person elements of instruction.
The CHCCS school board initially passed a Plan B hybrid-learning plan for the fall 2020 semester in July, but later changed its plans to an initial nine weeks of remote learning after hearing feedback from parents and faculty. Shortly after, the Board of Education chose to extend remote learning further until the start of the spring 2021 semester.
In his letter to students and staff in November, CHCCS Interim Superintendent Dr. Jim Causby said, despite the surge in state COVID-19 cases, the district still has hopes of reopening schools for everyone in the second semester. However, with the reopening of schools amid an ongoing pandemic, Causby said clear communication and safety practices will be key moving forward.
“I think the easing of concerns of staff and parents has probably been the most difficult part of this,” Causby said. “Other things you can plan, but when people have a fear it is very difficult to take that away from them. I’ve said all along that the success of bringing staff back and making them feel good is to get them confident – and you only develop that confidence through sharing the information from people who know what they’re doing and correcting a lot of misinformation.”
To make sure the community is well informed on the latest safety practices and COVID-19 trends ahead of January, both Orange County School systems have been working closely with the Orange County Health Department.
Dr. Monique Felder, the Superintendent for Orange County Schools, said while more students will have the opportunity to learn in person in January, safety is still the first priority.
“We have worked very closely and we continue to work very closely with the Orange County Health Department and we’ve done that since day one,” Felder said. “Again, as public educators, we have always embraced collaboration and partnerships. The pandemic requires us to have health experts at the table as we make decisions to return to school and ensure that we are keeping our students and staff and the community safe.”
Under Plan B, every school district is required to have a 100 percent virtual learning option. Students that do decide to learn in-person will do so on an alternating basis of in-person and remote.
Felder said the school districts have already safely brought back students and staff since August. Currently they have two supervised learning labs for students with working families. In October, they also brought back separate settings for students with disabilities and Pre-K learners. Felder said she knows remote learning isn’t for everyone, so students and their families will benefit from having options.
“We know that some of our Exceptional Education students, some of the most heavily impacted students, it [remote learning] is not working well for them,” Felder said. “It’s not working well for some of our youngest learners, and it’s not the teachers – it’s simply the remote learning aspect. We know that remote learning as educators – there’s no substitute for in-person learning – it’s not the best option for all of our students.”
To watch the full Public Health Chat video from the Orange County Health Department, click here.
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