FAYETTE COUNTY, WV (WOAY) – With students expected to be back in the classroom Tuesday morning, Fayette County Schools has been busy creating their re-entry plan. Students will be returned to school under the blended model which has students with last names A through L coming Tuesday and Wednesday this week and last names M through Z coming Thursday and Friday. All schools will also be dismissed forty-five minutes early for the rest of the semester.
“We are dismissing forty-five minutes early at all of our schools for the remainder of the year because we are reaching out a little bit more to our virtual kids and when we are in the blended model even to our students who are on remote,” said Fayette County Schools Superintendent Gary Hough. “We are trying to do some extra work with those students so they don’t fall behind.”
Superintendent Hough says the schools have also adjusted their virtual model which now uses venders as opposed to virtual teachers. In doing so, the schools have been able to put students back in classes at reduced numbers with more social distancing. This will make it easier to transition students back into the classroom five days a week which is hopefully once employees have been given the second dose of the vaccine.
“We are putting those students back in classes so when they do come we are able to reduce those class sizes,” Hough said. “We’ve adjusted some of our high school schedules to reduce class sizes even more because we have hopes that after the second dose of the vaccine occurs for our employees we will be able to get our students back on a full time basis.”
The schools will also follow the new county map guidelines which has high schools on remote learning if the county is in red. However, Fayette County Schools will use a weekly basis for the color map as opposed to a daily basis.
“Say for example we went on red in the middle of the week, they are on remote for the remainder of that week,” Hough said. “Then we use the Saturday and the Sunday map, either day if they are on red then at that point we are on remote the next week unless we meet with the health department and make a decision that it’s safe to return.”
The hope is to have students back in the classroom five days a week in a couple of months.
