Students, teachers will return with changes

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  • White County School System Assistant Superintendent Scott Justus shows off the 640 gallons of hand sanitizer the school system purchased for this year. (Photo/Stephanie Hill)
    White County School System Assistant Superintendent Scott Justus shows off the 640 gallons of hand sanitizer the school system purchased for this year. (Photo/Stephanie Hill)
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Dan Peterson with Ecovasive spays down one of the White County School buses with a solution to protect againt coronavirus on Wednesday, July 15. The application lasts 90 days, and will be reapplied every 90 days for the entire school year, said Assistant Superintendent Scott justus. (Photo/Stephanie Hill)
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The White County School System will resume classes a week later than originally planned, with precautions in place related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Teachers and staff are scheduled to return on Aug. 3, and students are set to come back on Aug. 14. For students not ready to return to face-to-face instruction, there will be a digital/distance learning option available.

“White County School System believes that education is a community effort and never has that been more evident than in the past four months,” White County School System Superintendent Dr. Laurie Burkett said in a July 8 statement. “We are grateful for your support, encouragement, and input as we have worked together in developing our reopening plan.”

Burkett said that the information is constantly changing and the school system has worked on a plan that follows guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Georgia Department of Education, local and state health officials, as well as input from the community.

To help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and any disease, the school system will promote the following and more:

• Cloth face coverings will be provided by WCSS. Students and staff will be strongly encouraged to wear them, but not required, when social distancing is difficult.

• Touchless hand sanitizer stations have been added throughout each building

The school system will deep clean all schools before students and staff return, along with increasing the cleaning routine of high-touch classroom areas/spaces daily. There will also be touchless water bottle filling stations at each school. The money to pay for these changes is coming from Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) funds and the federal CARES Act.

“Things like hand sanitizer machines, touchless water bottle filing station, those kinds of things were able to purchase from SPLOST,” Burkett said.

The CARES Act funds are being used to purchase the actual hand sanitzer, masks and other items, Burkett said.

The school system will be assigning activity zones at recess for elementary schools and limiting intermingling of classes. WCSS will also restrict the use of lockers for PE and manage traffic flow throughout the building. White County Middle School announced that students will not be using lockers this year, and instead students will be allowed to use bookbags instead of cinch sacks.

Parents will be asked to remind in their vehicles during drop-off in the mornings and afternoons. There is no in-person school wide events or gatherings scheduled at this time. Virtual open houses for all grades will be scheduled.

In regards to transportation, part of the plan includes assigned seating on school buses to minimize student contact and adjusting routes to decrease the number of students on buses.

For meals, breakfast will be grab-and-go, and students will eat in their classrooms. Self-service option will be removed from lunch. Scanners will be used when students go to pay, and touchpad have been removed.

Only competition-based field trips will be allowed at this time. When clubs are allowed to resume, sponsors will have to follow school health prevention and safety guidance. Students who participate in distance/digital learning will be able to participate in extracurricular activities and athletics.

If a student tests positive for COVID-19, Burkett said they are following guidelines from the Georgia Department of Health in regards of what to do. She added that they are also following guidance from the Georgia Department of Education, which released a document Monday, July 13, with a decision tree talking about what to do if a students tests positive. There are different steps to take depending on exposure, symptoms and diagnoses. These include having the affected student or staff member completing requirements in the Department of Public Health’s “Return to School Guidance,” going at least three days without medicine for a fever, having improvement in respiratory symptoms and at least 10 days having passed since symptoms first appeared.

The school system response will depended on number of symptoms and test results. There could be targeted closures, which would close affected areas, short-term closures, and long-term closures.

“When we made the decision to limit non-essential visitors, have desks apart, we’re doing that so when someone does test positive, we don’t have to shut down the whole school,” Burkett said. “We’re aware of where that child has been.”

Parents interested in the digital/distance learning option will need to fill out a form on the school system website, and a member of the administration will reach out to them to discuss the option, Burkett said.

Information from the school system said the digital/distance learning is for students who are organized, self-motivated, have good time management skills and the support of their parents. The students will participate in the online learning Monday through Friday from Aug. 14 to Dec. 18, and will follow the school system school calendar. The full reopening plan for 2020-2021 and the digital/distance learning interest form can be found here.