New Hanover County Schools adopts ‘Plan C’ for reopening

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — The New Hanover County Schools Board of Education voted Tuesday night to switch up the plans for reopening this fall.

After more than four hours of debate, the board voted six to one to switch to Plan C, a fully remote learning plan.

School district officials explained a number of different issues still at hand with reopening schools for in-person learning.

They discussed a lack of staffing in schools, a lack of technology devices and PPE.

Some of the task force team members say there are 29 staff vacancies right now, and there have been eight resignations in the last two weeks. They also talked about logistical challenges with carrying out the safety procedures with students and staff each day.

However, from the around 13,000 survey responses the district received over the summer, about 66.8% of parents wanted to send their children in-person, 31.5% wanted remote learning and 1.9% said they wouldn’t be sending their child back to NHCS.

Board member David Wortman was vocal, fighting for Plan B to give families a choice on whether to send their children back for partial in-person learning or keep them fully virtual.

“There are a lot of things we have to consider,”Wortman said. “Not just COVID. It’s educational. You have a kindergartener or a 1st grader whose attention span is five minutes, and they can’t stare at a computer like a high school student can stare at a computer for hours at a time. Then we’re asking our parents to teach those children when a lot of those parents are working two jobs. They’re going to have legitimate problems choosing work or educating their children.”

Wortman says parents were kept off the task force teams in charge of discussing reopening plans, and their opinions weren’t taken into account. However, Board Chairwoman Lisa Estep responded to that saying, at the meeting, they heard from a principal who also has four children of her own.

Board member Judy Justice was vocal in the opposite direction, posing questions about the logistics of bringing children back to school safely.

“They’re not closing it, they’re delaying it,” Justice said. “When you see 71 new cases since yesterday, I’ve been watching these numbers for months and this is very scary.”

During the meeting, the board also heard from task force team members about concerns from teachers and staff. They say they’ve received a number of calls from staff who say they want to return to work, but would prefer to do that in a remote work environment.

Year-round schools will being fully remote August 4, and traditional schools will begin August 17.

The district says the comment/input survey remains open right now. You can find the survey results and Back to School Guides for Families in English and Spanish here.