Lexington-Richland 5 adjusts its school re-entry plan for early 2021
Lexington-Richland 5 school district is changing its re-entry again, with a new plan for how schools will tackle rising COVID-19 cases going forward.
Superintendent Christina Melton recommended at Monday’s school board meeting that Lexington-Richland 5 go virtual-only during the first three days back from the winter break. Students at all schools and adult education courses would take online courses from Jan. 4 to 6.
Melton said the virtual shift would allow the district time to reassess how the coronavirus has affected students and staff before they return to campus, after they have been gone for two weeks.
“It would be very difficult to work effectively that Monday,” Melton said. “We need to look ahead to see what Thursday and Friday might look like when we look at the numbers from throughout our closure.”
Going forward, the district will take a more targeted approach, empowering the superintendent to scale back operations if a 10% quarantine rate of students or staff at any school creates too great a challenge.
Individual schools could revert to a four-day-a-week model, a two-day “hybrid” model or fully virtual classes, depending on the severity of the outbreak.
Board members approved the change, in part to avoid having to adjust its re-entry plan again at another meeting.
“How often will we have to reconvene to discuss re-entry models?” said board member Rebecca Blackburn Hines. “I worry on Wednesday, Jan. 6, we’ll have to have a meeting to decide if we go virtual on Thursday or Friday.”
The January delay was approved on a 5-2 vote, with Nikki Gardner and Catherine Huddle voting against. The 10% flexibility rule was approved unanimously.
Previous schedule discussions
Just two weeks ago, the school board declined to take action on Melton’s request to move middle and high school students from a four-day-a-week schedule to a two-day “hybrid” classroom model. That decision led to teacher and staff walk-outs at three district high schools — Chapin, Dutch Fork and Irmo — and to protests by students outside the school board meeting who supported a return to a hybrid model.
The board reassembled two days later and approved a shift to hybrid until students return from the winter break in January. From Wednesday until Friday of this week, students at all grade levels in Lexington-Richland 5 will switch to virtual classes to allow more time for contact tracing heading into the holiday break.
Last Friday, the district launched a dashboard on its website tracking coronavirus cases at individual schools in the district. Currently, the dashboard shows that more than 100 staff members and more than 1,000 students are in COVID-19 quarantines. Last week, players on the Dutch Fork football team were placed in quarantine when players tested positive for COVID-19 after the state championship game.
Currently, the district is operating seventh through 12th grades on a two-day hybrid model — with students alternating on campus and spending three days a week learning online. Elementary schools are operating a four-day-a-week schedule, with online courses on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Jan. 7, all grades will return to a four-day-a-week schedule. The school board previously voted to resume face-to-face classes five days a week on Feb. 1.
Lexington-Richland 5 isn’t the only district dealing with a bumpy re-entry during a rise in COVID-19 cases across South Carolina in recent weeks. On Monday, the neighboring Richland 1 school district announced it would return to all-virtual classes for at least the first two school weeks in January. The district plans to resume in-person hybrid classes after Martin Luther King Day.
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