Tag: School

Nine W.Va. Counties Will Go Virtual-Only In First Week Of School

The West Virginia Department of Education announced Saturday that nine counties will begin with only remote learning for the week of Sept. 6 through 12. State officials rolled out updated data Saturday at 9 p.m.

 

Monongalia, Fayette, Kanawha, Logan, Mercer, Mingo, Monroe, Putnam and Wayne counties will not initially open for in-person instruction. 

 

Monongalia is the only county in West Virginia as of Saturday night that is marked red on the state’s color-coded map that gauges whether schools are ready for in-class teaching, sports and other activities. Previously, Monroe County was also labeled red but was moved to orange on Saturday.

 

A level of red indicates “substantial community transmission.”

 

As of the Saturday update, orange level counties — which indicates “heightened community transmission — include Fayette, Kanawha, Logan, Mercer, Mingo, Monroe, Putnam and Wayne.

 

The remaining counties in the state fall into the yellow and green levels, which allows for in-person instruction to begin. Yellow counties indicate “increased community transmission,” while green translates to minimal spread of the virus.

 

The color-coded threat levels are based on an average of new daily cases — with counties of 16,000 or more on a 14-day rolling average. Those with populations of less than 16,000 are measured on a 7-day rolling average.

 

State officials announced last week they would create a data review panel to evaluate county coronavirus case data to determine its accuracy and reliability.

 

“Upon further review of the data by the Panel, it was determined that Monroe County should be moved to orange status,” said West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Cabinet Secretary Bill Crouch on Saturday. “This is because the county’s daily number of cases and the average seven-day incidence have declined sufficiently to meet the criteria for orange. From this analysis, the Panel concluded the level of COVID-19 transmission in Monroe County was improving.”

 

Monroe and the other counties in orange means school is remote only, but extracurriculars can still resume, however athletic competitions may not.

 

Updates to the map will be announced each Saturday at 9 p.m. and will be in effect until the following Saturday at the same time, according to the state Department of Education. The only exception would be if a county turns red during the week.

 

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

 

“We’re about ready to go back to school,” said Gov. Jim Justice in a virtual press conference Friday. “Unfortunately we’re going to have some that we just can’t turn loose right yet, which is in the best interest of the school.”

 

Justice announced Friday the state will devote an additional $50 million in federal pandemic relief funds for personal protective equipment and testing capacity at schools.

 

The 2020-2021 school year in West Virginia is set to start on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

As of Saturday morning, the state Department of Health and Human Resources reports 11,289 total cases of the virus and 243 deaths. 2,530 cases are considered active.

Counties With High COVID-19 Numbers Turn Down Student Athlete Testing, To Miss First Games

School superintendents in three counties with especially high numbers of COVID-19 cases are forgoing an offer from the governor to test all of their student athletes, a proposal that he said would’ve allowed teams to compete in their first respective games of the season this week. 

Original guidance from the state calls on counties with higher numbers of daily COVID-19 cases than others to cancel public sporting events, holding only practices for their student athletes.

Following a protest outside the Capitol from parents on Monday, Gov. Jim Justice offered that afternoon to test all student athletes in counties affected by this guidance. Barring one positive result per team, Justice said, the state would allow them to play this weekend.

School officials in these three counties –Fayette, Logan and Kanawha – said they would not ask their athletes to participate in the testing because they were more interested in reducing in-person activities, to ensure a safer start to school next week on Sept. 8. 

“I think we need to focus on our testing priorities,” state Sen. Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, told West Virginia Public Broadcasting Monday. Baldwin represents Fayette County, one of the three who were eligible but declined Justice’s testing offer. “Playing sports for a week is not a crisis. We have people dying.”

Fayette, Logan and Kanawha counties were all colored orange Saturday night, referring to a color-coded map of the state designed to document each county’s number of daily COVID-19 cases on a rolling seven to 14-day average.

Orange is the second worst color to red, which would require schools to cancel in-person classes for the week and practices for student athletes.

Justice said Monday his offer to test all student athletes in the three orange counties – which, according to the state’s color-coded map, were required to cancel games – was a “one-time opportunity.”  

“We have consulted with every health expert, we’ve consulted with all kinds of people,” Justice said. “… We’re going to test all the coaching staff, all those that are involved, the bands, everybody in those three counties.”

In Fayette County, superintendent Gary Hough said coaches and principals all agreed the testing would be a lot of work for schools that were already prepared to cancel or reschedule their games later this week.

“I think they wondered how that could all be done in 24 hours,” Hough said of high school principals and coaches. “A lot of them had already rescheduled games.” 

In Logan County, superintendent Patricia Lucas said schools there already canceled their games this week, due to their red status on the color-coded map of West Virginia counties last week.

“We were not at a place where we could’ve competed this Friday anyway,” Lucas said.

Kanawha County schools released a statement Monday afternoon, in which their superintendent Tom Williams said the focus would “be on making sure that we do everything in our power to get our students back to school.”

Increased Community Transmission

Kanawha County, West Virginia’s most populous, had three outbreaks in long-term care facilities as of Monday afternoon, according to the governor.

Logan County recently was in the red on the state’s color-coded map for counties earlier in August, while dealing with several coronavirus outbreaks among churches and one at the Logan Regional Medical Center.

Although many of the Logan County residents infected from those outbreaks have recovered and several residents there have died, Justice reported there were still active coronavirus cases at the local Trinity Health Care Services nursing home.

More than 140 prisoners at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex in Fayette County have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Monday. Local health officer Anita Stewart said Monday the county also has seen more community transmission, or cases that aren’t linked to out of state travel, following COVID-19 surges from neighboring counties.

“The counties that surround us – you know, Raleigh, Kanawha, those counties in particular – have had increasing numbers in the last three weeks,” Steward said. “So, it’s not surprising that we’re seeing an increase in our numbers here, two to three weeks after they saw a surge.”

Monongalia and Mingo counties were also in the orange zone Monday. Although both counties’ athletes are still allowed to play games this weekend because they remained in the yellow on Saturday, Justice said Monday that he hoped to offer the two communities additional testing.

Monroe County, where several residents and staff at the Springfield Nursing Home have tested positive for the coronavirus, was in the red on Monday. Schools there are not allowed to have practices or games for the week.

Although Justice said his testing offer was a “one time opportunity,” implying schools will stick to the rules accompanying the color-coded map once school starts next week, he and other health officials encouraged people to seek testing, regardless, to ensure “healthy opportunities.”

“We are highly cognizant that the time frame of delivering any tests back is a challenge for us,” said the state’s coronavirus czar, Dr. Clay Marsh, on Monday. “We have worked with a few organizations to try to make sure that these particular tests return [rapidly] …  not only because that that will impact the ability of the teams to schedule to play the teams that would be eligible after testing, but also so that we can prepare the communities and the schools for the ability to get back into classrooms.”

The pressure of the fast turnaround was one of the reasons why at least Fayette County decided against the testing, according to local superintendent Hough.

According to the state Department of Health and Human Resources, the state has contracts with five laboratories for coronavirus testing. Commissioner Bill Crouch for the DHHR announced the state was partnering with two more private labs to minimize the time that West Virginians spend waiting on their results.

DHHR spokesperson Allison Adler clarified that the state has contracts pending with Quest and Ipsum laboratories.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

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.

Not Wearing A Mask On W.Va. Campuses This Fall Could Lead To Probation, Expulsion

Updated on Aug. 12, 2020 at 9:50 a.m. 

All of West Virginia’s higher education institutions have varying return-to-campus plans in place for the fall 2020 semester. But how will plans be enforced? And what consequences exist if students refuse to comply?

As early as next week, some schools in West Virginia, such as Concord University and West Virginia University, will begin fall 2020 semesters, with others like Marshall and Shepherd University starting on Aug. 24.

All of West Virginia’s higher education institutions have protective protocols in place to combat the coronavirus, such as mask-wearing and social distancing.

Like their counterparts across the nation, most colleges and universities in the state are offering a mix of in-person, virtual and hybrid courses. Dormitories, in many cases, are single-occupancy rooms and will no longer allow visitors. And all institutions have greatly increased cleaning efforts.

Many schools, such as Shepherd, have signs all over campus that read, “Please keep your face coverings on!”

Gov. Jim Justice is asking that all public and private colleges and universities in West Virginia require coronavirus testing of all students who come to campuses.

At WVU, students and staff not wearing face coverings on campus could receive a written warning, be removed from class, put on probation, or even face suspension or expulsion, according to the school’s website.

Similarly, at Shepherd, if a student refuses to wear a mask, the situation will be “treated as a conduct issue by Students Affairs and Residence Life,” the university advised in an email to West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

At Marshall, students and staff who wish to report incidents anonymously can do so through an online form. Those in violation would be “subject to the rules of the student judicial system and Board of Governors Policy No. SA-1, Student Rights and Responsibilities,” according to guidance posted on the school’s website.

“[A] formal warning comes first, followed by conduct probation, [which] limits participation in extracurricular activities and student privileges, then probationary suspension, suspension, and finally expulsion,” said Leah Payne, Marshall University’s director of University Communications.

The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission has provided a page on its website with links to all of West Virginia’s 4-year, 2-year and private institutions’ return-to-campus guidelines, which continue to be updated as schools sort out safety policies as they begin the fall semester.

Recently, Justice provided $2.5 million dispersed among West Virginia’s colleges and universities to support COVID-19 testing on campus.

West Virginia HEPC Chancellor Sarah Armstrong Tucker said this funding will help institutions ramp up testing and reopen safely.

“This accelerated testing, combined with the far-reaching health and safety protocols schools have already activated, will allow students to continue their education – which is critical to their futures and the future of our state – with greater peace of mind,” Tucker said.

**Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story said Shepherd and Marshall would require coronavirus testing of all students living in residence halls as well as student-athletes, newly arrived international students or students coming from hot-spot areas in the U.S. This is in fact a request by Gov. Jim Justice for all students attending the state’s public and private colleges and universities.

Application Extended For Families Hoping To Purchase School Clothes, Shoes

Families who depend on assistance from the state to help purchase back to school clothes for children have more time to apply. According to a press release by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, COVID-19 has delayed the application period for the School Clothing Allowance program. The SCA provides funds for eligible West Virginia children to purchase clothing and shoes for school.

The program will also be moving to an electronic format to allow recipients to make online purchases to reduce health risks. Previously, purchases were limited to in-store transactions.

Revised dates for the school clothes application period as well as new guidance related to online shopping will be announced in coming weeks. 

In 2019, more than 42,000 West Virginia families received a school clothing allowance.

Perks Of School At Home When You're 8? 'I Get To Spend Time With My New Dog'

This week on West Virginia Public Broadcasting we’re featuring stories about how the state’s youngest residents are faring during this unprecedented coronavirus pandemic. Schools will remain closed for the rest of the year and that means big changes for students. Charleston resident Blaire Malkin interviewed her son Arlo, who is 8 years old, about what it’s like being out of school. Take a listen.

Want to share your story? Folloe the instructions here – https://www.wvpublic.org/post/kids-and-parents-we-want-hear-you-share-your-self-isolation-stories-wvpb#stream/0

 

 

 

 

 

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