WADESBORO — A continuously rising number of COVID-19 cases in the county and burn out among teachers has caused some concern in the Anson County school district during the first three weeks of Plan B.
All three K-5 student cohorts rotated through their in-person learning, each completing their “first” weeks of school. This new plan started on Nov. 2 as the Anson County School Board was eager to get students back to in-person learning as online engagement had slowly tapered off.
In this plan proposed and researched by Superintendent Howard McLean, students from Kindergarten through fifth grade are broken up into three different groups. During the first week, Cohort A returns to the schools, while Cohorts B and C stay online. The following week brings in Cohort B and the first group returns back to virtual learning. This cycle is repeated as each cohort comes to school every three weeks.
Although it has only been the first three weeks of this plan and the first week for each cohort, McLean is constantly monitoring attendance, curbside feeding service, teachers’ morale and parents feedback.
“The Plan B hybrid plan that the we instituted seems to be working extremely well,” McLean said. “The plan itself, which of course you know, we may have some problems within the plan…I think the plan, by dividing the district into thirds, it helps controls the numbers and we can control if there is a cluster or outbreak, we can control that area and perhaps continue on in other areas.”
Cases have already hit inside the district, even before students are off and traveling for the holiday season. Two staff members in the district and one student tested positive for COVID-19. Others who have been exposed are quarantining, according to McLean.
He is concerned this number will rise as the Thanksgiving and winter breaks are quickly approaching.
“I am fearful what the numbers may be after these two main holidays,” McLean said. “We are constantly watching and monitoring.”
On top of the stress of keeping everyone safe, McLean noted attendance is not perfect.
“Our attendance is not 100% and it is not where we want it to be, but it is better than not having kids at all in-person,” McLean said. “The curbside service meals … our curbside numbers are down. They’re down so far that we may have to maybe relook at the program after the holidays… I don’t know if (parents) have another means of feeding their families now or they simply don’t have the transportation to get to the curbside food service.”
McLean sends the school board an attendance update at the end of each week. The report is broken down by each school, then by each cohort and virtual students.
In the report, it outlines the expected attendance of the students coming into school, followed by the number of students who are absent. It is important to note the absent column includes both in-person and virtual students who did not attend school.
The total amount of students, both virtually and in-person, equaled 925 students during Cohort A. For that week, about 18.6% were absentee.
The percentage of absentee students slowly decreased as both Cohort B and C transitioned back to in-person learning. About 17.8% of students, both were absentee during Cohort B’s week. The most recent week, Cohort C, showed about 16.8% of students were absentee.
Principals are following up with students who are absent and track down what is going on. The reasons for students being absent vary, according to McLean.
One of McLean’s major focus is on how his staff is handling this schedule.
“I am concerned about my teaching staff and burnout,” McLean said. “They are burning out in accounts of both ends, with in-person learning and virtual learning. Teaching is hard anyway with COVID-19, but then you add the pressures of COVID-19 so right now I’m very concerned about my teaching staff and how long we can keep up the pace we are at now.”
A principal expressed to McLean and the board through a Google Document of weekly updates, that his teachers are beginning to burn out and show signs of more stress than normal.
The burnout is due to K-5 grade teachers switching between in-person and virtual teaching every day, plus the constant worry of staying safe and healthy as cases rise around the county, according to McLean.
He notes his teaching staff hears about teachers passing away from COVID-19 in surrounding counties and that influences their stress levels.
“I’m very proud of them because they have done extremely well thus far,” McLean. “If we don’t monitor and control the stress level, we may lose a lot of teachers and not be able to run our district. I’m not talking about one or two teachers; I’m talking about several teachers that have a threshold of stress.”
To relieve some of the teachers’ stress, principals and the district are celebrating their hard work through food, Teacher of the Week awards to recognize their hard work or coupons. All staff members also work from home on Fridays, which gives them an extra mental day.
Despite the growing concerns, students are excited and ready to be back. McLean noted so far there have been no concerns with students not following proper COVID-19 protocol. Of course, students are giddy about seeing friends again and they are exchanging quick high-fives. But they are quickly adapting to the new normal of staying six feet apart and constantly wearing their masks.
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