CMS will meet to modify its reopening plan for the fall. Here’s how to watch.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools board will hold an emergency meeting Thursday afternoon to reconsider the district’s reopening plans for the fall.

Currently, CMS is expected to reopen under an option called “Plan B+ Remote,” where students would attend three to four days of socially distant, in-person orientation with their teachers, split into three groups. The rest of the year would be conducted through virtual learning, unless coronavirus metrics in Mecklenburg County improved.

The CMS board will meet at 2 p.m. and the public can watch the meeting via a stream on the CMS Facebook page.

Roughly one-third of CMS students opted out of in-person learning for the fall, with more than 52,000 enrolling in the district’s Remote Academy. Those students would not be required to return to classrooms should the district decide to switch to an education plan with greater in-person components.

The district extended the deadline to register for the remote option until August 3, after principals and parents expressed concerns and said they had struggled to sign up in the original window. Families must contact their child’s school directly to enroll.

The plan to bring students back into the classroom for two weeks of orientation faced significant pushback from teachers and other school-based employees, who raised concerns about the safety of students, workers and their families. They have advocated for a transition to “Plan C,” or full remote learning, until Mecklenburg County becomes less of a hotspot for the virus.

The county currently leads the state in the number of deaths and confirmed cases, with more than 19,000 people testing positive. Under Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive order, no school district in North Carolina can reopen at full capacity. Schools can either choose Plan B, of moderate social distancing, or Plan C, which would mean exclusively virtual instruction.

This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 11:04 AM.