Tag: In-Person School

Some School Districts Say They Won’t Return To In-Person Classes Next Week, Awaiting Full Vaccinations

West Virginia’s pre-K through 12th grade students are set to resume in-person school next week. But some counties are opting to remain virtual until teachers can be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Among those are Berkeley and Jefferson County schools, which plan to remain in virtual and remote-style-only learning models until all teachers and school service personnel can receive the required two doses of a coronavirus vaccine.

Jefferson County Schools announced Thursday in an emergency meeting that students will not be in physical classrooms again until March 1.

“While we all agree that most students learn best in a physical classroom with a trained and caring teacher, we cannot put that ahead of safety,” Jefferson County Schools said in a statement. “Based on the latest information from the Jefferson County Health Department, as well as feedback from JCS staff, the Jefferson County Board of Education determined that remote learning was the best way forward right now. They plan to revisit the decision regularly should any current conditions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic change.”

Following an executive order issued by the governor on Monday, the West Virginia Board of Education ruled on Wednesday that pre-K through 8th grade would no longer be allowed to offer full, remote learning. This option remains, however, for high school as long as high schools attempt a blended model of instruction — where students spend some days a week in a physical classroom and the others at home.

Still, high schools are also encouraged to be fully in-person, unless a county is red on the state’s coronavirus map.

 

Virtual school, which is different from remote, is still available in all 55 counties and for all grade levels.

The state school board also ruled that county superintendents and county boards have the ultimate authority to work with their local health departments to determine what’s best for their districts.

But Gov. Jim Justice made it clear in his Friday afternoon virtual press briefing that he did not think the path being taken by Jefferson and Berkeley counties was the right one.

“I think, without question, they ought to be back in school,” Justice said. “But I think that it’s going to be completely up to them.”

The governor’s coronavirus health team has said that children under age 15 do not transmit the virus at the same rate as children who are high school-age or adults. Justice again pointed this out in his press briefing.

“All the health experts, all the scientific research says that the transmission possibilities from 8th grade down is next to nothing,” Justice said. “If we don’t go to school, then our kids are failing, our special needs kids need us. Without any question whatsoever, we have all kinds of abuse and situations that we can, we can really help our kids if we’re in school.”

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Following the state Board of Education’s ruling to require in-person learning for pre-K through 8th grade, on Thursday, the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia announced it plans to file an injunction against the state Board of Education, the Department of Education, and certain county boards of education early next week.

The reason is “to protect the health and safety of school employees” from the coronavirus, the union said.

The AFT-WV applauded school districts that have already chosen to remain with remote and virtual learning. The union is urging more districts to follow this example and remain fully remote until all teachers can receive both doses of a coronavirus vaccine.

The governor said in response to the move by AFT-WV that if “unions are pressuring weak board of education members” and they decide not to have in-person schooling, then those local school boards will “have to deal with consequences from the [state] Board of Education.”

County School Boards Push Back As State Plans In-Person Classes, Limits Remote Learning

Many brick-and-mortar schools in West Virginia are reopening next week after an executive order from the governor and approval of the plan Wednesday by the state school board. The plan was met with push back, however, from some teachers and county school districts.

Fully remote learning will no longer be an option for West Virginia’s pre-K through 8th grades, starting next week. Virtual schooling, which is different from remote, will remain.

Members of the West Virginia Board of Education in their monthly meeting approved a motion outlining the parameters for both public and private K-12 schools as they resume in-person teaching.

Starting Tuesday, pre-K through 8th grade will attend in-person school regardless of a county’s color on the state’s coronavirus map. County superintendents and county school boards, though, have the ultimate authority to work with their local health departments to close school and adjust as necessary.

Fully remote learning, which means students fulfill studies on their own time and often without face-to-face instruction, will no longer be permitted at the pre-K-8 level.

West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Clayton Burch said this learning model doesn’t work efficiently and creates too many gaps in a child’s education and well-being.

“We can’t say remote learning and handing a packet of papers to a child on Monday is any form of education,” Burch said. “I think during the governor’s [spring] executive order, we were under a health emergency. We allowed and talked about remote learning and how to possibly just fill that gap during an emergency, but now I’m really, really concerned where we’re headed if we continue to talk about remote.”

Students in pre-K through 8th grades will still have access to virtual school though, and Burch acknowledged some counties, like Kanawha, Upshur, Ohio, Wood and Jefferson, have robust virtual options.

Virtual is different from remote, in that students are often in a real-time video conference with a teacher and classmates, mirroring an in-person classroom.

Board members agreed with Burch, including West Virginia Board of Education President Miller Hall, who gave a passionate speech saying the state can’t afford not to send children back to in-person school. He added that it could result in the loss of “an entire generation” of student education.

“Remote learning is not teaching,” Hall said. “But here’s the problem, it’s not equity, because some of them don’t have a computer. Some of them can’t do it. Some of them, if they had [a computer], still wouldn’t do it. How do I know? Because I’ve been to the homes. I’ve traveled all across the state … They need to be in-person.”

Some West Virginia teachers took to social media during the meeting denouncing the claim that remote learning isn’t teaching, arguing that they worked hard this fall to make this model work when it was necessary.

Board members were made aware of comments and walked back the statement that remote learning isn’t teaching, but maintained that the remote model can no longer be an option for young students.

West Virginia’s coronavirus health team has said transmission of COVID-19 among children under age 15 is “very low.” Burch told board members that throughout the fall semester, transmission of the virus was 0.2 percent among children, while among teachers, it was 0.3 percent.

“When schools move to remote settings, we oftentimes saw spikes in the community transmission rate,” Burch said.

New parameters for high school have also changed.

High school will be held in-person, unless a county turns red on the state’s coronavirus map. High schools are permitted to keep remote-style learning but are still encouraged to have in-person as much as possible. For example, creating a blended model of instruction — attending in-person two days a week, while the other days would be remote.

All grade levels, pre-K-12, will still have access to a virtual school model if families don’t feel comfortable with in-person.

Some county school boards, such as Kanawha and Berkeley, have already decided on reentry plans for next week. Kanawha County Schools have opted to use a blended model, while Berkeley County Schools have voted to remain in remote and virtual models until teachers have been vaccinated for the coronavirus.

Burch said by the end of the day Friday, at least 19,000 teachers and school service personnel over age 50 are expected to have received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

Mask-wearing and other COVID-19 mitigation efforts will continue to be required in all grades, regardless of vaccine status.

Twenty-seven W.Va. Counties Will Be Remote, Virtual School This Week

Updated on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020 at 4:30 p.m.

The West Virginia Department of Education announced that 27 counties will be remote learning-only for the week of Dec. 6. State officials rolled out updated data Saturday, Dec. 5 at 5 p.m.

Barbour, Berkeley, Brooke, Grant, Hampshire, Hancock, Marshall, Mason, Mineral, Ohio, Wayne, Wirt, Wood and Wyoming counties, which were in the red zone on the state’s color-coded map, will not be open for in-person instruction this week.

Boone, Cabell, Hardy, Jefferson, Morgan, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Preston, Putnam, Ritchie, Tyler, Upshur and Wetzel counties were in the orange category and will also be remote learning-only.

The COVID-19 Data Review Panel also announced that two counties shifted in their color zones. They included:

  • Nicholas County: Moved from red to orange due to data validation and one duplicate case removed.
  • Upshur County: Moved from gold to orange due to data validation and lab results updated to the correct residence.
  • Brooke County: Moved from orange to red on Sunday, Dec. 6
  • Hampshire County: Moved from orange to red on Sunday, Dec. 6

Red (Substantial Community Transmission): Remote-only learning mode. No extracurricular competitions or practices are permitted. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue. Counties in red include: Barbour, Berkeley, Grant, Hancock, Marshall, Mason, Mineral, Ohio, Wayne, Wirt, Wood, Wyoming

Orange (Heightened Community Transmission): Remote-only learning mode. Extracurricular practices may occur, however, competitions may not. Staff may report to their schools, as determined by the county. Essential support services, including special education and meals, will continue. Counties in orange include: Boone, Brooke, Cabell, Hampshire, Hardy, Jefferson, Morgan, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Preston, Putnam, Ritchie, Tyler, Upshur, Wetzel

Gold (Elevated Community Transmission): In-person instruction is permitted with restrictions, including face coverings at all times for grades 3-12. Extracurricular activities are permitted. Competitions can take place against schools within the same county as well as schools in other gold counties. Counties in gold include: Calhoun, Clay, Doddridge, Fayette, Harrison, Jackson, Kanawha, Mingo, Pleasants and Roane

Yellow (Increased Community Transmission): School may be held for in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings at all times for grades six and above. Please refer to your county for specific face covering requirements. Counties in yellow include: Lincoln, Logan, Marion, McDowell, Monongalia, Monroe, Raleigh, Taylor

Green (Minimal Community Transmission): School may be held for in-person instruction. Extracurricular practices and competitions may occur. Health and safety precautions include, at a minimum, face coverings in grades three and above when students are outside of core groups and in congregant settings and on school buses. Please refer to your county for specific face covering requirements. Counties in green include: Braxton, Gilmer, Greenbrier, Lewis, Mercer, Pendleton, Randolph, Summers, Tucker, Webster

All schools, both public and private, are expected to adhere to the WVDE’s re-entry map to guide in-person instruction and extracurricular activities.

Updates to the map are announced each Saturday at 5 p.m. and will be in effect until the following Saturday at the same time, according to the WVDE. The only exception would be if a county turns red during the week.

If this happens, the change would be made immediately to the map, according to the WVDE, and all in-person instruction and extracurricular and athletic activities would be suspended.

According to the West Virginia Department of Education, there are 22 outbreaks in the state’s K-12 public and private schools and there are 96 total positive cases.

As of Sunday morning, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources reports 19,077 active cases of the virus and 838 deaths. Since the state began to track virus spread, there have been more than 54,900 confirmed cases to-date. In the past 24 hours, more than 1,400 new cases of the virus have been identified.

Group Demands W.Va. Governor, Education Leaders Start School Virtually This Fall

A coalition of teachers and public school advocates are asking for West Virginia schools to start remotely for the first 14 days with in-person instruction beginning only after 14 consecutive days of no new coronavirus cases in the state.

The Our Students First Coalition also wants state officials to allow students to return to in-person learning – on a county-by-county basis – if cases drop to zero in certain areas.

The group held a demonstration and press conference outside the West Virginia Education building in Charleston Wednesday to advocate for remote learning at the start of the 2020 school year.

“We hear over and over, [students] are safest in the school, but I disagree,” said Jenny Anderson, co-head of the Our Students First Coalition, as their protest was broadcast over Facebook Live. “They’re not safest in the school now. They could be. But not now.”

About a dozen members of the group stood together on the Capitol lawn, six feet apart, wearing masks and holding poster boards that represented desks in a classroom – giving a visual example of what classrooms might look like if the school year begins in person, as planned.

“There are going to be teachers that get sick and other school staff,” Anderson said. “It’s not fair to put the burden on the people that are not making the decisions.”

The coalition has more than 5,000 followers made up of members from the WV United Caucus, the Families Leading Change West Virginia group and others, according to Anderson. The group is also partnered with several groups, including local chapters of the American Federation of Teachers and the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy.

Jay O’Neal also leads the coalition alongside Anderson. He is an educator in Kanawha County and pointed to safety concerns including ventilation. He said many schools in West Virginia are too old and not ready to accommodate in-person schooling without first updating ventilation systems.

“I teach at Westside Middle School. I teach in a building that’s 80 years old, [and] a lot of the windows don’t open,” O’Neal said. “The air conditioning just recycles air from the classroom. It doesn’t pull in any outside air … so we’re concerned.”

Other speakers chimed in, pleading for the state’s leaders to take more time to not only better equip classrooms and school buildings but also perfect remote learning in a state where broadband is not always reliable.

O’Neal said the coalition submitted more than 1,700 letters about these issues to Gov. Jim Justice and state education leaders who so far advocate for a hybrid of in-person and remote learning this fall.

The governor and state leaders, however, have said that should school need to go totally virtual this fall, they are prepared to accept that scenario.

“We absolutely will do everything in our power to not put our kids and our teachers or our service personnel into any situation that we feel is unsafe,” said Justice on Monday. “We may very well back up and say we can’t go to school now, [and] we’ve got to go 100 percent virtual … I’m telling you, this situation changes, not weekly or monthly; this situation changes almost hourly.”

Other demands by the Our Students First Coalition include training for parents and educators in virtual schooling, waiving the 180-instructional-days requirement for the 2020/2021 school year, and providing regular, free and widespread coronavirus testing for staff and students.

West Virginia’s public schools are slated to begin in-person instruction, with virtual options, as ordered by the governor, on Sept. 8.

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