In-person learning expands

Clay County students in grades 6-12 will be able to return to the classroom four days per week as early as Monday. The Clay County Board of Education approved the decision during a called meeting on Monday. "I think getting them back in is obviously a huge plus, academically, as well as socially and emotionally," Chairperson Dr. Jason Shook said.

Wednesday will continue to be a remote learning day and schools must also continue to offer fully remote learning as an option. While on campus, masks must continue to be worn by students, staff and visitors. All other safety protocols will remain in place except for spacing requirements in schools and on buses.

The decision comes after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and state lawmakers reached an agreement on the in-person school reopening bill, which was signed into law on Thursday, March 11. It requires all elementary school students to operate under Plan A — full in-person learning. Middle and high schools have the option to operate under Plan A or Plan B.

"Thankfully, the governor and the general assembly were able to come to a compromise agreement last week that would afford us this opportunity, not just our district, but districts all across the state of North Carolina," Superintendent Dale Cole said. "My recommendation is that we get our students back in as soon as we can, which would be Monday, March 22."

Cole said the school system will inform the community by the end of this week whether or not it will be possible to implement the plan by Monday. Clay County Schools have already been on Plan A in grades K-5 since last fall, but haven't been able to adopt the same policies in middle and high school until the recent legislation altered distancing requirements. "I'm thankful that in Clay County, we've been providing four days of instruction for K-5, I think, since October, whenever we had that opportunity," Cole said. "That's been helpful for our K-5 students. We've not been able to do that for 6-12 and there have been academic consequences as a result."

According to Cole, between 35-40 percent of Hayesville High School students are currently fully remote, while 20 percent of Hayesville Middle School students are operating under that option. He doesn't expect those percentages to change significantly under the new plan. He said continuing to use Wednesday as a remote learning day for all students provides teachers with important time to create lesson plans and conduct online meetings for remote learning. "I think it would be really too much of a burden right now to ask our teachers to provide face-to-face instruction five days a week, plus put together a remote instruction for fully remote students and try to meet with them after the school day," he said. Keeping Wednesday as a remote learning day also allows for facilities to receive a thorough cleaning in the middle of the week, in addition to the one conducted on weekends.

Cole noted that there could be an argument for waiting until after teachers have received their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine before implementing the plan. The superintendent said most teachers received their first jab of the Moderna two-dose series on Wednesday, March 10, with the second scheduled to come around Wednesday, April 7, which would be only days before spring break. "If we waited that long, our students would not come back until the week after spring break," he said. Cole said it would be reasonable to anticipate additional teacher absences around April 8-9, immediately after they are scheduled to receive the second dose.

Flu-like symptoms have been reported as a common side effect following the second injection of both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. The board acknowledged the possibility of needing more substitute teachers around those dates, or possibly even closing school for those days if there were more teacher absences than what could be filled with substitutes.

The board also discussed three first-read items that did not require votes or decisions, but will be addressed at the regular monthly board meeting on Monday:

• The 2021-22 district calendar was presented to the board for review. According to Cole, the biggest change pertains to the start and end dates of the school year. Clay County has been part of a waiver from the North Carolina state calendar for the past 10 years. Eligibility was based on the number of snow days taken. However, the school system didn't have enough snow days to be eligible for another calendar waiver and must revert back to the calendar being used by the rest of North Carolina.

• The Hayesville High School staff has proposed a graduation time and location of 6 p.m. Friday, June 4 at the football field. A rain date of Saturday, June 5 would be set at the same time and place. This scheduling would even allow staff to move the ceremony back to Sunday, June 6 as a third option if both other attempts were rained out.

• A proposed partnership between Clay County Schools and Southwestern Child Development Commission would create a public daycare at Hayesville Primary School. The program would consist of 36 spots, with 17 set aside for staff members of the school system. "I think this is a great opportunity to work with a local nonprofit to provide more daycare options for parents in Clay County while at the same time providing a really good recruiting tool for Clay County Schools, a really strong benefit for our teachers and doing it in a way that doesn't cost the school system money," Cole said.