SUFFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The first group of Suffolk students whose families chose in-person learning will go back on March 15.
The Suffolk School Board agreed students need to be back in school, but it was not a unanimous decision. The motion passed in a 4-2 vote.
Special Education students will be in class four days a week. Pre-K to fifth-grade students will also go back on March 15 on a hybrid model two days a week. Sixth grade through 12th grade will return on March 22, also on a hybrid model.
This is the first time Suffolk campuses will reopen in almost a year. Students have been learning virtually since the start of the school year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Suffolk School Board members heard a presentation on the coronavirus numbers on Thursday. The metrics in the eastern region of Virginia and in Suffolk are trending downward.
Division officials say they’ll be looking at a secondary indicator — the number of cases in school-age children — when monitoring metrics moving forward.
Officials also said they feel confident the impact to staff and students would be low because their mitigation strategies are at a high level. Gov. Ralph Northam also recently emphasized that transmission within schools is not a high risk based on research.
Masks will be required on campus and families will need to screen their children for any COVID-19 symptoms before sending them to school. Staff members will also need to self-screen. Buses will be disinfected along with various other measures.
At the beginning of the meeting, a couple of parents addressed the board saying students are regressing and their mental health is suffering.
“If parents are willing to risk this, what they see in terms of now our mitigation strategies, where the data is, I feel that we have to provide for that,” board member Sherri Story said.
However, board member Tyron Riddick felt the board was rushing a decision, saying there are too many unknowns such as the new COVID-19 variants.
“I don’t think we’re dealing with this situation realistically, we’re doing it because I think some people are backing into a corner,” board member Tyron Riddick said.
Division officials say they need about three to four weeks to adequately prepare for students to return in-person, so this vote fits the timeline set by Northam.
Last week, Northam directed all Virginia Schools to offer some form of in-person learning by March 15.