During his Wednesday, December 30, coronavirus response media-briefing, West Virginia Governor Jim Justice announced that all elementary and middle school students across the state will be returning to in-person learning five days per week starting on Tuesday, January 19.
In order to comply with the governor’s directive, Fayette County school officials have made several adjustments to their education model.
In a statement on social media, dated Wednesday, December 30, Fayette County School officials made the following announcement:
“Those students that are on virtual learning will restart as normal on Monday, January 4, 2021. Students will return to school in the normal learning model beginning Tuesday, January 19, 2021. No extracurricular activities can take place until March 1, 2021. We have extended the sign up for virtual school for the second semester until Friday, January 8, 2021. You can sign up by going to the Fayette County Board of Education website at https://www.boe.faye.k12.wv.us/. Meal packets for all students will be distributed on Thursday, January 7, 2021. Please listen to all announcements.”
According to Justice and Burch, this decision was made for three primary reason; COVID-19 transmission rates are exceptionally low for students and staff of elementary and middle schools, the remote learning model has led to a 50% to 54% reduction in monthly child protective services referrals and, perhaps most importantly, virtual learning has been a categorical failure.
“We’ve got a bunch of kids out there, really suffering. So we must get back in school,” Justice said.
“The governor understands the data is undeniable,” State Superintendent of Schools Clayton Burch said. “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.”
As of Saturday, January 2, Fayette County is designated as orange on W.Va. DHHR’s color-coded county health map. The infection rate is 63.33% and the percent positive is 7.54%. The DHHR updates the map daily. However, Fayette County has been designated as either red or orange since before the West Virginia Department of Education’s Saturday, December 19, map update, and has remained consistently high in both measurable categories.
Not all education professionals are happy with this decision. The American Federation of Teachers – the largest teachers union in the state – were among those opposed to West Virginia’s new education model.
Through a social media post, dated Wednesday, December 30, Fred Albert, President of the the AFT-WV said, “AFT-WV is disappointed that Governor Justice made such a sweeping proclamation on in-person school attendance at a time when community spread is at its most unchecked during the whole pandemic. Furthermore, he did so without getting any input from those on the ground doing the work.”
The West Virginia Daily News will provide additional updates as new details are made available.
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