JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — Students in the Greater Clark County Schools district went back to school Wednesday after months of being away.
The district has 10,400 students and is offering students and parents THREE options: Traditional school, mySchool Online, which is an option where students are virtually interacting with their teachers throughout the day, and the Virtual Academy, which is a more flexible option.
While neighboring districts like New Albany Floyd County Schools have pushed their start dates back for extra preparation time and to monitor potential rises in COVID-19 cases, Clark County leaders said they’re ready to start the school year now.
Chad Schenck, Chief Operating Officer for GCCS, said the district has been working on the back-to-school plan for a while.
The district has been preparing for all summer long, and leaders are confident in the back to school plan.
“We really feel like all of the work and all of the preparation and all of the planning has been done in such a way that we know we can protect kids, we know we can protect staff,” Schenck said.
That preparation includes gathering PPE, sanitizing schools, and making sure the virtual options students have will be as robust as any in class instruction.
“We’re into a decade of Chromebooks and one-to-one devices, so our teachers have done a fantastic job over the last 10 years of preparing students to have online learning,” Schenck said.
While parents can choose between in-person and virtual school for their kids, some say it’s not an option for them.
“For us, honestly the options were limited,” said parent Kindra McCauley. “My husband and I both work outside the home.”
“There’s some curriculum they get through the school that I can’t actually provide,” parent Valerie Van Winkle said.
Schenck believes about 70 percent of the district’s students will return in person.
Parents whose kids are retuning to school know the district has their kids’ best interests in mind.
“I feel like the teachers and administration have done a good job of trying to ensure everyone’s safety, so I’m not really concerned about that,” McCauley said.
With the school year starting so early, the district hopes if everything goes according to plan, students last day of in person instruction for the year will be November 20. That’s the schedule a lot of universities have taken on this fall.
Jeffersonville High School will not return in person until August 5. Those students will have online instruction until then.
Contact tracing found a small percentage of people associated with the school have to quarantine.
See how GCCS prepared for the first day of school here:
Schenck said the first day of school is always hectic, even in a normal year, but the district has tried to take every step to make this a successful semester.
“We really feel like all of the work and all of the preparation and all of the planning has been done in such a way that we know we can protect kids, we know we can protect staff,” he said.
If everything goes according to plan, the district hopes that the last day of school for students’ this semester will be November 20, which aligns with the schedule many colleges have taken this fall.
Contact reporter Rose McBride at rmcbride@whas11.com. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.
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