Due to the continuing crisis in the state of South Carolina with explosion in corona positives the past 6-7 weeks, Greenville County Schools has decided to push the start of the school year back one week from August 17th to August 24th.
This comes on the heels of Governor Henry McMaster asking school districts to consider pushing out the start of school until September 8th.
There appear to be no signs of the coronavirus slowing down in the Upstate despite the government, big business, and big medicine calling for everyone to wear a mask. Apparently it is though that the mask will slow this all down.
The South Carolina Department of Education has come out with busing protocols for the 2020-2021 school year. They have an entire web site called Dedication to Education to provide guidance as to how schools should operate this year during Covid-19. This comes from the work led by State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman who convened school administration leaders and teachers from all over the state to participate in the AccelerateED task force.
From Dedication to Education:
“The first thing you should know is that all our focus, and every single one of our priorities, are directed toward protecting the health, safety and wellness of students and staff while giving students the best possible learning experience that is as close to normal as health and safety allow.”
There still appears to be a lot up in the air yet for this coming school year. We are waiting to hear from Greenville County Schools supposedly by July 21st as to what their plan will be for opening.
Governor McMaster yesterday suggested that schools should delay the opening until September 8th due to the spike in Covid cases right now in South Carolina.
This sounds serious folks. The Greenville County Schools Board of Trustees are holding a meeting tomorrow morning at 9am to discuss the upcoming school year.
Given the incredible rise in positive coronavirus cases in the past 6-7 weeks here in South Carolina, I’ve been of the opinion that they will not be going back to school this year and that everything will be virtual. Just today, South Carolina DHEC announced that we had 1,532 new Covid-19 cases and 13 new deaths…205 are on ventilators. We’ll see what the Trustees have to say after tomorrow’s meeting.
Note, I’d like to see the students go back to face to face education. We’ve seen the sharp spike in Covid cases but not a corresponding rise in deaths fortunately. Perhaps we’ve nearly achieved herd immunity? Maybe the virus is weaking? I don’t know but just following the data, I personally don’t have big concerns at this time.