The Lamar County School Board decided during an early Friday meeting that students and staff members will wear masks as part of the school code, and opening day of school will be delayed one week.
The traditional and virtual classrooms will be used in the opening classes since a Hybrid system was not approved during the meeting. However, board members did decide to set the Hybrid system as Plan B if later outbreaks occur.
Superintendent Tess Smith said the Hybrid plan is based on alternating students.
“Hybrid would allow us to have only half of our student population in the building at one time,” she said. “Our plan would have allowed for two days with a teacher and three days home, giving teachers one day to plan. This allows for social distancing, requires less contact tracing, and would make all feel safer in my opinion.”
According to Smith, the parents who responded to the school district’s survey did not support the Hybrid system.
“I heard from a number of parents over the weekend,” she said. “More than half were not in support of Hybrid for a variety of reasons, especially childcare and a need to return to work.”
Smith said she had hoped students would return to the buildings when school opens. However, the Mississippi Department of Health presented new guidelines last week.
“Previous guidelines had indicated social distance could be reached in school buildings within three to six feet,” she said. “It is now a full six feet. Also, the definition of close contact was changed to within six feet of someone for 15 minutes or more to test positive. Masks were removed from that definition.”
Smith said the new guidelines could be difficult in a classroom.
“If we were to follow this guidance and a high school student tested positive, we would potentially have to send home 32 students for 14 days in one positive test,” she said. “That is eight students per class and potentially the teacher, given where the infected student sits in class.
“Imagine being seated in a desk in a classroom. That would be the three students in front of you, the ones on each side and the three behind you, essentially forming a square around the positive case. Adjusting our plan now and using the time to reevaluate at a later date allows us to begin educating our students, but at a safer setting for all. We would essentially have half those numbers in each class and allow them to social distance so fewer would have to go home when a positive case appears.”
Smith said the traditional schedule hinders social distancing on school buses and only to a minimal degree in very few classes.
“If approved, the Hybrid could be reevaluated at a later date using actual data from within our district,” she said. “We have a number of high-enrollment schools. There are 19 campuses that function in the Lamar County School District. We have one campus with 1,700; one with 1,450; one of 1,000; one of 800; two that have 700, and seven that have more than 400 each with full classes.”
Smith said the registered number of traditional school students could be a problem in social distancing. Only 18 percent of the school district students have registered for virtual education.
“We have a number of teachers who are at high risk or who go home to someone who is high risk,” she said. “Students have a virtual option; teachers do not. In order to social distance using any schedule working virtually for our teachers is not an option. At least with hybrid, we can allow them the possibility of social distancing.”
Smith also said providing portable computers for students who are involved in virtual education will depend on incoming money.
“The district office has received a number of calls about the federal dollars that we received,” she said. “We have not received the money that was allocated yet for devices. The Department of Education is finalizing the grant project that we will have to complete. Even though it is a grant product, we have been assured that as long as we can complete the paperwork, we will receive the money and/or the devices when released.”
Smith said the new devices will streamline the paperless process for the students and staff. Other funding is used in providing cleaning products.
“This is the money that we can use in our sanitation project,” she said. “It is for hand sanitizers for the classes and hallways, spray cleaners and cloths for employees, and hiring day workers to aid in cleaning and daily management, since we are going to eat in the classroom's, as well as hiring people to assist the nurse.”