BCSD moving forward with in-person, remote options

Published 2:00 pm Saturday, August 15, 2020

The Baldwin County Board of Education met Tuesday for what will likely be the final time before the start of the 2020-21 academic year.

It was the first in-person meeting the elected body has held since the COVID-19 pandemic hit as members have been coming together via teleconference. All attendees — both those on the board and in the audience — wore masks and sat spread across the boardroom. The situation was fitting since the same will be expected of students who have opted to attend school in person when the term begins Aug. 19. The start of school and safety measures associated with it were the major topics of conversation at Tuesday’s regular meeting. 

“Our staff has been working really, really hard in planning how we can safely reopen our schools,” Baldwin County School Superintendent Dr. Noris Price said.

The school district moved to remote learning in the spring when the novel coronavirus forced closure of school campuses, so the upcoming first day of school will mark the first time K-12 Baldwin County School District (BCSD) students have attended school in person since March. 

BCSD last month gave its families the option between traditional in-person attendance and remote learning. Price shared Tuesday that 79 percent (about 4,000 students) of Baldwin County’s 5,000-student enrollment had declared their choice. Of that 79 percent, about 60 percent — about 2,400 students — had selected remote learning. Those students are locked into that decision for the minimum of one grading period, which is nine weeks at the K-8 levels and a full semester at the high school. 

The response rate initially was not that high as it was actually closer to 40 percent before teachers started calling parents. That helped get the number up to 79, but still, the school district is having a hard time reaching a significant portion of middle and high school parents. Price said that parents of around 500 Oak Hill and 150 Baldwin High students could not be reached. Knowing where students plan to be is part of what drove BCSD to allow for an in-person option.

“Our concern is that they will all show up on the first day and we will not be able to accommodate them,” said Price. “We are planning to have anywhere between 15 and 20 students in the class with five to six feet of social distancing. If kids just show up, we can’t add desks to the classrooms, so we’ve got to find these kids.”

The superintendent said that home visits will be conducted to find out where the students who have not been reached plan to be at the start of school. 

For those planning to report to school in-person, students will have their temperatures checked daily upon entering their buildings and will be expected to wear face masks throughout the day. BCSD is supplying its employees with two cloth face masks and students with one. Children who have medical reasons for not being able to wear a mask will be provided a face shield as an alternative. 

“When we did our town hall meetings with our parents and mentioned there was a possibility we were considering recommending kids wear masks, we heard loud and clear from our parents and our staff that we needed to require it,” Price said. “We put it in our safety protocol because we know now the importance of wearing masks.”

BCSD has invested more than $270,000 in cleaning supplies and PPE to fight the spread of COVID-19, according to figures presented Tuesday. Those funds came out of the about $2 million BCSD was given through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. School officials said the amount of money spent on equipment changes daily.

For some students, they are on a piece of school district property before they ever get to campus. School buses looked to pose a significant challenge, but with fewer children attending school in person, it should allow for better distancing in seating. Price said buses will keep their windows down while transporting students to allow air to circulate, and that comes as a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Checking students’ temperatures before they board the bus was discussed, but ultimately rejected since a child with a high temperature cannot be left at the bus stop. 

Baldwin County’s youngest students have already gotten a taste of regular in-person attendance as the Early Learning Center began having students back Aug. 3. The Montessori Academy, a partnership between BCSD and Georgia College, started on Aug. 3, while the Early Learning Center had students report Monday. 

“Parents and children have followed all the rules,” ELC Director Lori Smith said during Tuesday’s board meeting. “We have not had any parents in our building since we started school, which was an adjustment when you’re dropping off your preschooler.”

Dr. Price is asking that parents sending their children, especially younger ones, back to school to talk to their kids about the importance of wearing a mask, social distancing and washing their hands regularly throughout the school day. The school district would like parents’ help in explaining the role all these measures take in keeping everyone safe and keeping schools open.

Students who have chosen remote learning will be doing so through the Baldwin Online Academy, an online option in its third year that allows students to still count toward BCSD’s enrollment total. Since fewer students will be actually in school, Baldwin County teachers will lead some of the online courses whereas they haven’t in the program’s previous two years. The school district is providing every student — regardless of whether they are doing in-person or remote learning — with a Chromebook this year. There is a fee, $30 a year or $15 per semester, attached if parents do not want to be responsible for damages to the machines. Those funds will be used by the school district’s technology department for parts and repairs. BCSD technology director Brian Daniel said that distribution of Chromebooks to remote learning students will begin Monday, and will be a drive-thru pickup operation. Times and location will be announced by the school district. The school district has also purchased wireless internet hotspots for students who do not have reliable internet at home to check out.

In addition, accommodations have been made to feed students doing their learning remotely since they will not be in their school buildings for lunchtime. The Baldwin County School Nutrition department will distribute five-day meal kits each Wednesday to cover students during the school week. Those must be ordered in advance and will be picked up at each student’s school.

This school year is expected to be unlike any other, so unprecedented planning has gone into it. That includes a possible switch to district-wide remote learning should COVID-19 become more prevalent locally.

“We’re monitoring the spread of the virus,” Price said. “If we need to change course, we will do that. That means that if we have to go remote district-wide we are ready to do that. We have everything in place to be able to do that.”