CMS moves ahead with scheduled reopening date. Youngest students to return on Monday.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will stick with its plans and have students return to the classroom in rotations beginning Monday, after the board decided to keep the return-to-instruction date approved in January.

Starting Feb. 15, pre-kindergarten, elementary, a small fraction of middle school students and some students with special needs will rotate days in classrooms with virtual learning continuing other days. Middle and high school students begin rotations Feb. 22.

Superintendent Earnest Winston said the reopening dates were highly anticipated, and that the district has done extensive work to prepare for bringing students back. Still, Winston acknowledged that while CMS has done what it can to minimize risk, the district cannot eliminate it entirely.

“We do approach this return very mindful that COVID remains a concern in our community,” Winston said. “We won’t be eliminating all risk... but we do believe we put practices and procedures in place to reduce those risks as much as possible.”

The move to bring students back to the classroom comes as Gov. Roy Cooper urged school districts last week to begin offering in-person learning. Cooper’s announcement followed a bill filed by Republicans in the legislature that would require school districts to give students the option of being in the classroom.

“Students should still have the option of remote learning this school year if that is best for them,” Cooper said last week. “And teachers who are at risk should be providing that remote instruction. But students who are ready to return to the classrooms should have that chance.”

Considering future schedules

While CMS will move ahead with the approved rotational schedules, district leaders said they would consider and evaluate ways to bring students into classrooms for more days and more frequently. Currently, pre-kindergarten and some students with disabilities are the only children who will be in classrooms five days a week.

Elementary school and students in K-8 schools will be in in-person learning two days a week, with Wednesdays as an asynchronous learning day. High school and middle school students will have more limited time in the classroom. Those students are expected to rotate through one week of in-person learning and two weeks of remote instruction.

Under the current guidance from the governor, elementary schools can operate under Plan A, or in-person classes with minimum social distancing, while middle and high schools must be in Plan B, which has stricter social distancing requirements, or Plan C, which is all remote.

Deputy superintendent Matt Hayes said those requirements, such as a maximum of 24 students on a bus and maintaining 6 feet of distance between students, makes it more challenging to bring high school and middle school students back in tighter rotations.

Hayes emphasized that in-person learning can only happen if the community succeeds in slowing down the spread of the coronavirus.

“It’s critical that everyone continue to observe safety measures during and outside of school hours,” Hayes said. “This is a community-wide effort that demands our community’s commitment.”

Since mid-December, all students in CMS have been learning remotely, prompted by rising cases and a growing positivity rate that led the district to suspend in-person learning through mid-January.

But the week before the district was scheduled to restart classroom rotations, Mecklenburg County Public Health Director Gibbie Harris issued a directive urging schools and businesses to stay remote. CMS heeded the directive, extending the remote learning period to Feb. 15.

Two closely watched measures of community spread remain in the district’s self-designated “red” zone, but have come down significantly from when Harris’s directive was issued. The health director later extended her directive to Feb. 28 but removed language about schools needing to hold “full virtual” class, the Observer reported in January.

Parent, teacher reaction

Nearly 40 people signed up to speak at Tuesday’s board meeting. Supporters of a return to the classroom criticized the board for not moving fast enough, and advocated for an even larger return to in-person learning.

Meg Kemp, a CMS parent, said the district had delayed the return to the classroom too many times and that CMS needs to bring all elementary school students back to in-person learning five days a week.

“The time for ‘but’ has passed and it’s time to get kids back into classrooms,” Kemp said. “K-5 needs to be back in Plan A. Every day counts and every day matters.”

But other speakers, particularly teachers, said they’re concerned that health and safety concerns are being set aside so schools could reopen. Some teachers said they were told to report in-person despite being offered a high-risk remote work exemption, forcing them to choose between their jobs or their health.

Jodi Felton, a CMS teacher and cancer patient, said she is undergoing chemotherapy and that her doctor had advised her to work remotely or risk serious impact to her health. But instead of continuing to teach remotely, Felton said her principal told her she would have to return to working on-site because of staffing needs at her school.

“My principal is not qualified to make life-or-death decisions about my health, nor should they put in a position to do so,” she said.

Chief human resources officer Christine Pejot said some schools would not be able to accommodate remote work requests from teachers if the school has a staffing shortage. But Pejot said the district would work with employees to provide some accommodations, such as providing additional protective equipment and minimizing contact with others once on-site.

North Carolina teachers are not yet eligible for the coronavirus vaccine, as the state is still working through vaccinating those 65 and older and front-line health-care workers. Winston said the district is continuing to push for access to the vaccine for school-facing staff, and that the district is hosting events for teachers over the age of 65 to get the vaccine.

This weekend, Novant Health will host a vaccination event at the Spectrum Center where CMS teachers who are 65 and older will be prioritized.

school board member Carol Sawyer said she understands the frustrations and fears of staff members, who she said have consistently been asked to do more with less. She said she hoped the pandemic would lead the community to see the importance of investing in public schools.

“Opening our buildings is easy,” Sawyer said. “But keeping them open is hard... I hope that this represents a turning point in our commitment to education.”

This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 10:37 PM.