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Barrow County School System will start the school year with distance learning for all students on Monday, August 17, 2020.
The health and well-being of our students, families and staff must be our top priority. Although the district had planned to begin with both in-person and distance learning, the current COVID-19 situation required a change in those plans. “It was our sincere desire to welcome students back into schools for in-person learning. We know that students learn best inside a traditional classroom. We are attempting to make that happen while keeping student and staff safety at the forefront,” said Superintendent McMichael.
“We made a very difficult decision based on the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in our county, as well as the concerns over being able to appropriately staff our schools.” Dr. McMichael continued, “If today was the first day of school, we would have been hard-pressed to have sufficient staff available to open our schools.” Although every precaution was taken and each staff member was required to wear a mask during preplanning, over 90 BCSS staff have had to quarantine due to a confirmed case of COVID-19, a suspected case, or direct contact with a confirmed case, and this is before students returned to our buildings.
We understand the difficulties that 100% online learning will cause for families. We are focused on providing the best instruction possible for our students. More information will be shared on Friday, Aug 7th about Chromebook requests and distribution, meals, and other important information. The district will also present a phased approach to bring students back into the classrooms as quickly as possible. Schools will share updated plans for orientation and preparation for online learning.
You can view the called Board of Education meeting on August 5 at 6pm on our YouTube channel.