Join Aaron Keck every Tuesday afternoon for Chatham County Roundup, a recurring series that shines the spotlight on Chatham County through engaging discussions and interviews with locals, newsmakers, officials and more.
This week on Chatham County Roundup, join Aaron Keck for a conversation with county commissioner Karen Howard concerning the recent meeting of Chatham’s Board of County Commissioners and the decisions being made in regards to education in Chatham as the question of whether or not to formally go “back to school” looms large.
“I think the risk of exposing people’s children brings a whole other level of concern, right? And they did make, I think, the right decision to go with the governor’s ‘option C,’ which was remote learning,” said Howard. “So our schools, we’ll start with remote learning and revisit after the first four weeks.”
According to Howard, the board’s decision was difficult to reach, and the hope is that the current scenario gives students and faculty alike “time to adjust” to the virtual learning structure, and allows for flexibility in the future should the situation change.
Of course, any application of remote learning requires a certain level of technology in the home — as well as stable, fast internet access. According to Howard, the school system is working to find solutions.
“Until we start really treating real, reliable, affordable access to internet as a utility, that something that every household in America should have, we’re going to see this inequity — and we’re going to see this lack of resource in communities that need it most,” said Howard.
Listen below for the full conversation, and tune in weekly for conversations about Chatham County happenings, people, news and more.
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