Macon County Schools is still shooting at a moving target.
And local school district officials are not alone.
Following an abrupt change of position by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, in which he appeared for a press briefing last week and declared that he wanted school districts to reopen for in-person student instruction, school officials were sent scrambling.
While Cooper’s message may have made it seem like he was advocating for all K-12 students in the state to be back in the classroom Monday through Friday each week, that was not the case.
As Macon County Schools Superintendent Chris Baldwin pointed out during an emergency meeting of the school board on Friday, Cooper’s plea for schools to “reopen” was directed toward districts that are currently offering only virtual instruction.
Under the current state mandates regarding social distancing in schools, Macon County is already offering as much in-person instruction as possible. Until the social distancing guidelines change, and they could at any time, Macon County’s “Plan B” configuration is as good as it gets for students and parents seeking classroom time.
Baldwin noted that NC Senate Bill 37, which is currently up for discussion in Raleigh, could “reopen” schools in the broader Monday through Friday sense but that legislation could take several weeks to pass the legislature. The bill also raises questions however, as it does not address the state’s guidelines for in-person instruction or the social distancing of school resources such as buses.
There is a very good chance that Macon County students will be back in class full time, at least four days per week with Friday as a virtual day, at some point during the current semester according to Baldwin. The problem is there is no timeline for when state requirements for in-person instruction may change, and without significant revisions in-person instruction is not possible.
It’s time for Cooper and his team of education officials in Raleigh to lay out a clear road map for the reopening of schools to what would be considered a “normal” schedule, rather than continue with mixed messages and half measures.