Richland 1 releases final plans for reopening school amid the coronavirus pandemic

Richland 1 students and their families will be able to choose between two tracks of learning this coming school year, but all students will begin classes online only this fall amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

A final plan for reopening the district’s schools was presented to school board members Tuesday evening.

Parents will be able to choose whether to enroll their students in a virtual-learning model for the entire school year, or to enroll in a phased-in model that will begin with online instruction and, hopefully, transition later to a mix of in-person and online classes and later to fully in-person classes.

The school district plans to start with all virtual classes on Aug. 31.

“We have to consider ... how we can best educate our students and not begin face-to-face with all those things, just given the health situation that exists in our community,” district superintendent Craig Witherspoon said.

Students who choose the all-online learning track for the entire school year must apply with the district by July 30. Students will remain enrolled in their traditional home school, but their teachers will not necessarily be teachers from that home school. Attendance will be monitored regularly, and state and district testing will be administered.

Students who choose the phased-in learning track, considered the default for the coming year, will be assigned to classes and teachers belonging to their traditional home school. The all-online learning phase, which will last as long as Richland County experiences a high rate of coronavirus spread, will include a blend of live and recorded online lessons. Attendance will be recorded daily, and teachers will give regular tests and assessments of students’ learning progress.

In the second phase, or hybrid phase, of this track, students will begin to alternate in-person and online instruction. Students will be assigned to cohorts that will attend school in-person two days a week and work from home three days a week.

Transition into the hybrid phase might vary among elementary, middle and high school classes due to the differing levels of risk for coronavirus transmission according to students’ ages. Older children and teens are considered to be at higher risk for transmission and infection.

“We’re hoping and praying that if everyone will wear a mask and socially distance that we can achieve that ‘medium’ (risk) rating soon ... because what we want is to get our children back to school,” said Sandra Brossard, the district’s chief of teaching and learning.

Only once the county is considered to be in a low-risk period of coronavirus transmission will the school district transition to all in-person classes, and only for those students who have chosen the phased-in track for the school year.

The school board voted to approve the Aug. 31 start date for classes, but board members do not have to vote to approve the reopening plan. The state Department of Education will have to approve the district’s plan.

District leaders soon will share a detailed guide to reopening schools, Witherspoon said. Further information will be handed down by individual schools.

Like a number of other public school districts across South Carolina, Richland 1’s reopening plan does not align with S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster’s ambitious recommendation of starting in-person classes five days a week after Labor Day. Though McMaster has urged districts to give families the option of all in-person or all-online schooling at the start of the school year, state education officials have said districts do not have to follow the governor’s guidance.

“Our decision is based on the science and circumstances, and we made a commitment we were going to follow the science,” Brossard said. In-person schooling, at this stage, is “not a situation we feel comfortable putting our teachers in, quite frankly,” she added.

Richland 1’s plan essentially aligns with the official guidelines from the S.C. Department of Education’s AccelerateEd task force made up of teachers, school administrators and other educators. Those guidelines recommend that schools provide virtual-only instruction if coronavirus spread in the district is considered “high,” based on state health department statistics. If spread is “medium,” the task force recommends a hybrid model of in-person and online classes. And if spread is “low,” schools are encouraged to offer in-person classes five days a week with necessary modifications.

According to Richland 1, a recent survey of more than 6,000 parents and 1,000 staff members that found 60% of parents and 59% of teachers were uncomfortable returning to the traditional structure of five days per week in the classroom.

Neighboring school district Richland 2 plans to reopen with a plan very similar to Richland 1’s, including a phased-in approach and an option for all-year virtual learning.

Other districts’ reopening plans vary across the Midlands, and not all have been finalized.

Lexington 2, for instance, has said it tentatively plans to reopen with a hybrid schedule of in-person and online classes after Labor Day, with an option for students 5K and above to pursue fully online instruction.

Lexington-Richland 5 plans to allow families to choose between fully in-person and fully online classes at the start of the school year, with the intention of reevaluating options after nine weeks.

This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 8:14 PM.