Wilson County Board of Education members may decide next week whether to extend remote learning further into the academic year amid a surge of COVID-19 cases. 

Board Chairwoman Christine Fitch said the active case count is going in the wrong direction.

“As we begin the new semester, we will have to continue to keep our eyes on the numbers related to COVID-19,” Fitch said during Monday’s meeting. “The numbers are going in a direction we would not like to see them go. They are going up. They are not going down. So that’s the wrong direction. If this continues, we will need to consider our options of staying remote or going hybrid as we chose to schedule before we went home for the Christmas break.”

Wilson County Schools teachers and students began the year in remote learning, with teachers scheduled to return to schools Jan. 19 and students slated to return on Jan. 25.

Fitch asked board members to be available for a special meeting if necessary to make a decision if the numbers continue to rise. 

“In an effort to keep our students, our teachers and all of our staff safe, it may be necessary for us to revise our plans again,” Fitch said. “It might be that we need to consider staying remote through the first grading period with a possibility of a return to the various hybrid models for the second half of the semester, or it may be that we end up making a decision to do as some of the other systems within the state have now chosen to do of staying remote for the rest of the school year.”

Fitch said nearby school districts that returned to in-person instruction are revising their plans. 

“We have tried to cautiously look at the options, and where some systems around us chose to come back into school face-to-face immediately after the break, they are now changing their minds and putting their systems on total remote learning, and some of those districts are choosing to do that for the remainder of the year,” Fitch said. “We will look to the administration and to the officials who have the health data to keep us posted, and we may very well be back again at the table deciding how we are going to handle. Our biggest objective is to keep us safe.”

Superintendent Lane Mills suggested a Jan. 19 placeholder meeting. If learning format changes are required, he said, the date is early enough to allow administrators to talk to teachers and to make the district’s families aware.

“That would give us some time again to talk to the health department and look at the numbers and look at some of the staffing issues and some of the trends we are seeing,” Mills said. “It is an uptick right now, and it is a concern everywhere.”

The district has 16 staff members and two students with active COVID-19 cases, according to Wilson County Schools’ online coronavirus data dashboard. WCS reports 103 staff members and 32 students who have recovered from COVID-19.

Three staff members and 29 students are active contacts, or people identified through contract tracing who were determined to have been within 6 feet of a positive individual for more than 15 minutes.

The total number of contacts in the district is 230 for staff members and 511 for students.

PUBLIC INPUT

The school board heard public input from two letter-writers concerning COVID-19.

Tara Jones, a concerned parent, said one of her 10 children became exposed to COVID-19 at school and tested positive.

“I want the parents, teachers and members of the board to know that this virus is affecting everyone,” Jones wrote. “If the students do return, how many more kids will become infected and how many more families will have to experience what I went through? As the virus counts continue to rise every day, I feel that the schools should stay virtual so the students and staff can be protected. Therefore, I respectfully request that the board reconsider the decision to send students back to school.”

Sandy Alston Morgan, a 30-year veteran teacher from Toisnot Middle School and a parent of a Fike High School student, expressed concerns about returning to the school building in the coming days.

“The health and safety of the students and staff is what is most important. Middle school students are required to be given two 15-minute mask breaks and a 30-minute maskless lunch inside a classroom,” she wrote. “This defeats the purpose of wearing a mask at all. Wilson is currently at a 95 critical risk, which indicates COVID cases are very high and spreading.”

Morgan asked board members to keep teachers and students in remote learning “until it is safe to return to the brick and mortar setting.”

“Each time we step into the building, it causes many of us to take risks that aren’t necessary,” Morgan wrote.

IN OTHER BUSINESS 

• The board tabled a decision on how to proceed with track renovations at Beddingnfield and Hunt high schools.

• The board heard a virtual presentation from Wilson Academy of Applied Technology students celebrating its 2020 School Board Leadership Award from the North Carolina Schools Boards Association.

• Administrators notified the board of a $59,915. contract with Arsenal Strength for Hunt High School weight training equipment.