CMS will go to full remote instruction this fall, after two weeks of in-person classes

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ classes will move to remote learning, following a socially distant two-week, in-person orientation for all students, a decision that comes as Mecklenburg County sees its COVID-19 case count continue to grow.

The school board’s vote comes a day after Governor Roy Cooper ordered all school districts to maintain social distancing in the fall, even if they return to some in-person instruction. Schools can either choose Plan B, of moderate social distancing, or Plan C, which would mean exclusively virtual instruction.

Under the plan approved by the board during a Wednesday emergency meeting, CMS students will rotate through schools for in-person time with teachers for the first two weeks. By August 31, all students will move to remote learning. Parents can enroll their students in a fully remote option if they do not want to participate in the in-person orientation.

Board members said this plan was designed to help students make connections with their teachers while keeping employees and children safe. Margaret Marshall said that the period of full remote learning was not intended to be indefinite, but would give the district and the county time to figure out the best response to the ongoing pandemic.

Superintendent Earnest Winston said the transition to full remote learning would mean 2,100 jobs could be at risk, as some roles cannot shift to a work-from-home setup.

Board member Sean Strain, who voted against the plan, said it did not offer a reason why students could not return to school in a socially distant way.

“It’s ok to be in school for two weeks, but not longer?” he said.

An alternate plan to have students rotate through one week of in-person class and two weeks of remote learning, similar to the original Plan B, failed in a 7-2 vote.

Mecklenburg County currently has more than 15,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, in addition to 168 deaths, the highest in the state in both metrics.

“The governor creates his orders and his guidance based on the entire state,” county health director Gibbie Harris told the board. “Mecklenburg county doesn’t look like the entire state. And we have higher numbers than anyone else. That impacts how we take his guidance and translate that on the ground... we’ve got to customize it to make sure it works for Mecklenburg County.”

Under Cooper’s order, face coverings will be required for all students from kindergarten through high school. The state will provide up to five face coverings for every student, teacher and employee. Symptom screenings will take place daily before students are allowed into buildings. School districts will also be required to create isolation plans for students who are suspected to be ill.

Overnight, more than a thousand teachers and community members called on the board to choose Plan C, citing increasing confirmed cases and concerns about the safety of students and teachers in two petitions to CMS.

Teachers have said that they did not feel like they had enough input into the decision making at the statewide level, and that they hoped to make their voices heard to CMS.

The district earlier sent out a survey gauging teachers’ willingness to return to in-person work, but many teachers voiced frustrations over the limited options and the timing of the survey, which was sent out before Cooper announced his decision.

Roughly 88% of respondents said they would keep their current school assignment and report in-person to work if told to. Other options were to request a leave of absence or an alternate work arrangement for medical reasons, or resign or retire from the district.

Some teachers said they felt the survey did not truly capture how employees felt about returning, as teachers without medical concerns could only choose between working in person or leaving the district.

Board member Ruby Jones said that inequities in buildings and campuses meant that some teachers and parents can feel safe about going back to schools, while others would be working in fear.

“They are in the hundreds fearful of the environments they’ll have to go into,” Jones said. “Many will have to go into classrooms where the buildings aren’t safe. Good air circulation? We have schools where the HVAC systems are outdated.”

Gary Little, chief medical officer at Atrium Health, said that the district must prepare itself for the inevitable outcome of someone at the school getting sick. The district must have robust plans for contact tracing, communication and prevention, while keeping an eye on the mental health of employees and students.

“What you’re doing is trying to minimize risk,” Little said. “You can’t eliminate risk.”

Little said that in Atrium’s experience, those who were infected often got sick outside of the hospital’s tightly regulated procedures, such as at home or during a break. While CMS can control the school environment, the district could not anticipate how careful students and employees were outside of school.

Catherine Ohmstede, a pediatrician at Novant Health, said that of the cases the hospital system had seen, the virus had been relatively mild in children, particularly those under age 12. Roughly 2,000 children under 18 tested positive at Novant, Ohmstede said, but only 10 required hospitalization and one became critically ill.

“These children are somehow being spared from this virus,” she said. “What our experience has been is that this is very mild for children under 12.”

Ohmsteade said that while children were not the highest spreaders of the disease among each other, the risk of whether children could spread the disease to adults remains hard to measure.

Little said that CMS must decide what their ideal outcomes are, and must balance the risk of spreading the disease with the socioemotional losses children could face if they are isolated at home. If students are out of the classroom, concerns about mental health, food security and abuse rise.

“No matter what decision you make, you’re elevating one risk over another,” he said. “If you don’t open now, when could you open? You could be looking at next fall.”

This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 10:22 PM.