Coronavirus will make Lexington schools look different in the fall. Here’s how
School could look very different for students in Lexington 1 next fall.
Students could still be taking classes online as they did after schools across the state shut down for the spring semester in mid-March. If students return to campus, their schedules and classroom environments could change dramatically from last year.
“Our goal is to maximize face-to-face time,” said Lexington 1 Superintendent Greg Little, “and have a safe, secure environment for our employees, our students and the community at large.”
In a proposal laid out to the school board on Tuesday, students at all levels will have the option of continuing exclusively with a remote online learning plan modeled on what teachers scrambled to get together when the last school year was so massively disrupted. But Lexington 1 also has plans to safely put students and teachers together again.
For elementary school students, that would mean attending a home room-based school day, with the same small group of students and their teacher remaining together in the same classroom, and even eating lunch and taking recess together, without the need for masks or social distancing. If other teachers need to come into the classroom for some subjects, they will come in wearing personal protective equipment. If a student needs to be pulled out of a classroom and potentially be placed with other students, then adults and children alike will be wearing PPE and social distancing from each other.
Older students in middle and high schools will have a similar level of social distancing. Students at each school will be split into “A” and “B” groups, and would alternate days on campus while the other group participated in virtual learning. All students would spend two days in class and three days in virtual learning, with all students working remotely on Wednesdays.
Start times and classroom periods will be adjusted to allow for staggered arrivals and movements between classes. School days will also have a built-in “advocacy period” for students and teachers to engage in “social and emotional support.” The proposal also calls for off-campus trips to the Lexington Technology Center to be able to continue.
Teachers would see about 60 to 90 students per semester, with 10 to 15 in a classroom at a time.
Lexington 1 also set a goal to resume classes on Aug. 18, but Little stressed that all plans for the fall are likely to change as the situation statewide changes.
Since March, 26,572 people have been diagnosed with the coronavirus in South Carolina, and 673 have died from the disease. Across the state, 824 are hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms as of Tuesday, part of an upward trend in cases.
“As reality changes, we have to be flexible,” Little said. “This could last for 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, or six months.”
But teachers are now focused on completing their students’ education despite challenges they now feel they have a better handle on, he said.
“Last year was about surviving,” he said. “Now we have to advance.”
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