Buses at 17% capacity, smaller recesses: here’s how SC schools could change this fall

South Carolina officials have rolled out another group of proposals for how K-12 students can return to school in the fall amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Those suggestions, floated at an AccelerateEd meeting Wednesday, aim to get students back into the classroom while minimizing the spread of coronavirus, S.C. Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman said at the meeting.

Those suggestions include:

• preventing or limiting volunteers from coming into schools
• students eating lunch in the classroom
• personal protective equipment (PPE) for students and teachers
• social distancing on school buses
• teachers changing classes instead of students
• breaking up recess so fewer students are outside at a time
• moving to semester-style, 90-minute classes for high school students to reduce the time spent in the hallways

School buses have recently been a sticking point with educators who see an urgent need to return students to the classroom, but fear the tight proximity of students on buses would serve as a breeding ground for coronavirus.

If students were to maintain social distancing of six feet, only 13 of the normal 77 students — or 17 percent capacity of capacity — would be able to ride on a bus, said Scott Turner, an AccelerateEd member and deputy superintendent for Greenville County Schools. If students were to maintain social distancing at five feet apart, it would increase to 26 the number of students who can fit on a 77-person bus, Turner said.

Students and teachers may also expect to see those in schools wearing personal protective equipment and possibly having their temperatures taken, officials said.

“If we can’t keep our staff and our students safe that’s going to undercut everything,” said Patrick Kelly, a Blythewood High School teacher who sits on the committee.

These measures are not expected to eliminate coronavirus from schools, but rather to minimize the spread, Spearman said.

“It’s impossible to maintain social distancing all day long with children,” Spearman said.

Since March, schools have been operating online or through physical packets in a practice called “distance learning.” While distance learning prevents coronavirus from spreading throughout the school, it is “inherently inequitable,” Kelly said.

There are a few reasons for why distance learning is inequitable, Kelly said. For one, students whose parents can adapt to acting as a teacher outperform students whose parents cannot, Kelly said. Students without reliable access to high-speed internet can also fall behind their peers who are participating in video conferences with teachers, playing online educational games and accessing email, according to a previous article from The State.

Even then, educators agree in-person education is better for all students, even high-achieving ones from privileged backgrounds.

“Just because learning can occur virtually, does not mean it can occur effectively in a virtual environment,” said Latoya Dixon, an administrator at York School District One.

The S.C. Department of Education polled school districts throughout the sate and discovered about 150,000 households have students who lack internet access, Spearman said.

“That’s a huge number,” Spearman said.

AccelerateEd’s recommendations will change with the status of coronavirus, and will be more of a “menu” of options for schools rather than a mandate, said Alan Walters, a safety administrator at Georgetown County Schools.

“We could make a recommendation today, but it could be totally out of date by next week,” Walters said.

This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 2:21 PM.