CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Kanawha County Schools officials are prepared to begin the school year next week remotely, as the county’s COVID-19 numbers continue to head in the wrong direction.
The Kanawha County Schools (KCS) Board of Education held a special session meeting on Thursday to discuss any further questions before the fall semester gets underway on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Ryan White, a board member, was vocal during the meeting on the importance of in-person learning compared to anything being done virtually. As Kanawha County sits at 14.04 COVID cases per 100,000 people on a 7-day rolling average as of Thursday, White said the community must do everything in its power to lower the number.
14.04 makes Kanawha County the color orange on the state Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) color-coded map, meaning schools are not allowed to open and extracurricular events are canceled.
“Online and eLearning Schoology is going to present problems for certain kids. Certain kids don’t have the home support that is needed. That is why in-person school is so much better,” White said. “We need those kids in school and that is why we need to work together as a community. That is our number one priority.”
“Come together as a community, work together, do the social distancing, wear their facemask, and not go out and congregate all the time. We need people to work on this.”
Dr. Tom Williams, KCS superintendent is also anticipating the county beginning the school year online. Teachers will report to the classrooms no matter what color the county is in and Williams said it’ll give them a chance to interact live with students. Williams said students will be able to have live discussions with instructors via Schoology and Microsoft programming.
Williams said should the county move down to yellow in the coming weeks, allowing for in-person learning, schools would still begin with a staggered re-entry model that was announced last month.
53 percent of students in the county signed up for in-person learning in August while 47 percent chose in virtual learning and Schoology models.
Williams said families are not able to change those learning paths once the semester begins.
“Once they made the decision, they are in there for the semester. We just had all of our schools redo all of their schedules and we can’t keep doing that all year long,” he said to the media.
“At some point, a kid has to have a schedule and know what you’re going to do. With all that being said there is always an exception but it will be a case-by-case basis.”
When in-person learning begins for the school system, Williams said the county has made a point to limit class sizes and get the proper PPE ready.
“We are trying to dispose them (students) around the building, move classrooms around. If it’s a small room, put a smaller number of kids in there,” Williams said.
“We are doing everything we can but in some cases, kids will not be socially distanced because it is just not possible within our buildings.”
The board tweeted this week that the school system has allocated $427,053 for coronavirus-related expenditures, in which more than $250,000 has been spent. The board also noted additional funding is needed.
Williams said the purchased equipment that will be delivered to schools in the next week includes disposable face masks, gloves, touchless thermometers, and alcohol wipes.
On Wednesday, the school system launched a coronavirus tracking tool to record active coronavirus cases among employees. Three employees of Chamberlain Elementary, Shoals Elementary and Cedar Grove Middle schools have tested positive for the coronavirus, but the schools remain open.