COVID metrics are improving across Wayne County.
Local health care providers are under less strain than they were before what officials characterized as an anticipated post-holiday spike in positive virus cases and hospitalizations.
Wayne County Public Schools officials are confident they can provide transportation, food and meaningful instruction should the Board of Education move forward with a transition to Plan A for K-5 students at the end of the third quarter.
But despite all of that information – reports interim superintendent Dr. David Lewis said was good news across the board – nearly 70 percent of Wayne County Public Schools’ certified staff members serving kindergarten through fifth grade said they want to remain in the state’s hybrid model instead of returning under Plan A.
WCPS communications and public information officer Ken Derksen told board members Thursday that of the 737 certified staff members surveyed across the district’s 18 elementary schools, 504, or 68 percent, said they would prefer to remain in Plan B.
“I think that as an educator, I believe that Plan B is the hardest … because I’m having to do a job-and-a-half, maybe two jobs. So, Plan B, in my mind, is absolutely the hardest to execute,” Lewis said. “So, when I hear back from them that despite that, they want to stay in Plan B because they are wary of giving up social distancing, that gives me pause. They are choosing the harder path because their concern of the loss of social distancing is weighing on them.”
As it currently stands, the district’s K-5 students will return to campuses under Plan A March 16. Those families that wish to keep their students in an all-virtual setting will still have that option.
During a press conference Feb. 2, Gov. Roy Cooper urged local school districts to ensure students have as much exposure to face-to-face instruction as possible – citing data he said shows young children can return to classrooms safely.
Cooper encouraged districts to implement Plan B for middle and high schools and Plan A for elementary students, but did not go as far as mandating the move via an executive order.
“Unfortunately, our kids are the ones who have suffered and we definitely need these kids back in school,” board chairman Chris West said. “There are probably going to be a lot of people who aren’t going to be comfortable with the decision we’ve made (to send K-5 back to campus under Plan A March 16) but it’s working in other districts. So, we have to navigate it one day at a time, but we’ve got to get the children back in school.”
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The loss of social distance. Sure.