Cooper urges districts to get more students in classrooms

Gov. Roy Cooper on Tuesday urged local districts to ensure North Carolina public school students are back in classrooms as much as possible — saying new research shows there is a way to keep teachers and their pupils safe while on campuses.

“Now, it is time to get our children back into the classroom,” he said.

But the governor did not eliminate the state’s mandated all-virtual option — nor did he ease any of the back-to-school restrictions currently in place. Middle and high schools can still only operate in the Plan B hybrid model and Plan A remains available exclusively for K-5.

In Wayne County, high school students who have their parents’ blessing are already receiving some face-to-face instruction under the state’s Plan B model. So are middle and elementary school students.

And the Wayne County Board of Education voted last month to consider moving K-5 into Plan A — full time face-to-face — in March, after the end of the first quarter of this semester.

The board voted 4-3 during a special-called meeting Jan. 13 to keep K-5 students in Plan B after a series of presentations by Central Office staff about the challenges WCPS faces in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a recommendation from Interim Superintendent Dr. David Lewis to pause a full-time return.

Those who voted against the delay, Jennifer Strickland, Dr. Joe Democko and Wade Leatham, said it was critical that local children — particularly the youngest served by the district — get as much in-person instruction as possible.

Cooper’s press conference comes the day after local board members learned that at least a fifth of WCPS third- through eighth-graders failed English and/or math first semester. In English, the 22-percent failure rate represents an 18-percent increase from the first semester of 2019-20. The math failure rate was up 14 percent.