In a press release issued on December 30, 2020, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced a revision to the guidelines for in-person instruction. According to this press release, all students in pre-K through grade 12 will be required to return to in-person instruction five days per week. Students in grades 9 through 12 will attend in-person so long as their county is not red on the Department of Health and Human Resources map. There will be an allowance for a four day school week in areas where teachers are providing virtual instruction to their own students.
All counties will utilize remote learning from Jan. 4 until Jan. 15. This is to provide teachers with adequate time to prepare for the move to in-person instruction on Jan. 19.
The State Superintendent of Schools W. Clayton Burch is quoted in the press release as saying “I fully support this decision because we know that heightened transmission rates experienced in communities are not reflected within the schools because of the mitigations in place.”
Another change described in this press release is the discontinuation of the WVDE Education Map. Pre-K through grade 8 will not rely on a map at all while high school students will use the DHHR map for guidance. Also, winter sports have been postponed until after March 1.
It is important to note that students and families have the option of remaining in virtual learning regardless of changes made to in-person instruction. In the case of Summers County, families were presented with three options. The first is to attend in-person instruction only. The second option is to receive virtual instruction from Summers County teachers and the third option is for virtual classes from teachers outside of the county.
Many Summers County parents are expressing displeasure at the return to full-time in-person instruction.
Michele Rollyson said, “My heart hurts that they are sending our kids back to school five days a week as high as our numbers are.”
She went on to say, “I think they should keep it the way it is, or at least first half of the alphabet Monday and Tuesday, clean on Wednesday, and the second half of alphabet Thursday and Friday.”
Some parents like Kimberly Hanna have decided to pull their children from public school entirely in favor of homeschooling.
The Hinton News reached out to the Summers County Schools Superintendent David Warvel for comment on school reopenings but he could not be reached as of press time. The Hinton News will update with comments from Warvel as soon as they are available.
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