Midlands school district sets a date for students to return to class five days a week
Some students in the Midlands will return to class five days a week early next year.
Schools in Lexington-Richland 5 will resume in-person classes five days a week beginning Monday, Feb. 1, after a school board vote Monday night.
The school district for the Chapin and Irmo areas is the first in the Midlands to commit to a return date for a full five-day-a-week schedule. Just last week, all grade levels in the district began attending a four-day-a-week schedule after a weeks-long rollout through different grade levels that followed the district’s previous reopening plan.
Monday’s 6-1 vote gave the go-ahead to Superintendent Christina Melton’s proposal, but it also represented a change in the board’s makeup after this month’s election. The board declined to lock in a reopening date in October by a 4-3 vote, instead allowing the superintendent to make the final decision.
Board member Ed White, who voted against a set reopening date two months ago, is one of those remaining four members on the board. He reiterated his opposition to a set date on Monday.
“We’re not equipped to make or manage that decision. We’re not going to be in the schools,” White said. “We can express our desire, but I think a mandate is not appropriate for the board.”
After the previous reopening vote, White said a teacher told him that if the board had decided to set a firm reopening date, “she would have come in and quit.”
But the new board majority sworn in Monday had expressed a desire to take a more active part in the direction of the district’s reopening plan.
“We need to have more explanation from the superintendent,” said Ken Loveless, the board’s new vice chair. “I would like to see the board included in that discussion.”
New Chairwoman Jan Hammond told Melton that with the board’s vote, “We are backing what you come up with. But we agree that we represent the community, and we have to have a say.”
Plan could be revised
The district’s plan will eliminate the virtual learning day on Wednesday when students return to working from home while their schools are cleaned to limit the potential spread of the coronavirus.
The all-virtual option some students in the district currently use will continue for the rest of the 2020-21 school year.
Newly-elected member Catherine Huddle, who made the motion to approve the February reopening date, said the board could revise the plan if circumstances change before Feb. 1.
Others expressed concerns about the continued reopening. One high school student spoke Monday about her worries of going to school in close quarters with her classmates, which makes it difficult to practice social distancing. A parent said she might keep her child home if COVID-19 numbers continue to spike.
Seventeen of the 22 schools in Lexington-Richland 5 have reported at least one case of COVID-19 on campus this school year, according to data from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Other districts have been slower to reopen. In Lexington 1, students in elementary and middle schools are on a four-day-a-week schedule, but high school students still rotate on and off campus two days a week. Last week, Lexington 2 returned some classes of students to school five days a week, while others remain on the district’s hybrid plan.
Schools in Richland 1 and Richland 2 started the school year on an all-virtual schedule, but those districts have begun to transition to a two-day-a-week schedule.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 10:10 PM.
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