FORT MILL, S.C. — The new school year for Fort Mill students and teachers will now start several weeks later beginning on August 31. This decision comes after the board approved a school calendar change Tuesday night to allow parents, teachers and students more time to prepare for the school reopening changes due to the coronavirus.
The vote for a later start date also means the end of the school year will extend into mid-June. Members of the school board agreed there’s no perfect solution, but this is the next best thing.
“It’s the best we can do,” Fort Mill school board member Celia McCarter said. “We’ve tried to be flexible and agreeable and here we are.”
The board also adjusted its reopening plan to allow elementary to high school students to return to school using an A/B schedule that rotates between virtual and in-person learning. For students K-5th grades, all in-person learning will begin the fifth week of school.
Ahead of the school board meeting dozens of teachers protested outside the district office expressing their concerns about returning to the classroom.
“I am terrified,” teacher Ali Tracy-McHenry said. “I’ve been stressed out all summer about it.”
Tracy-McHenry fears returning back to in-person learning so quickly will put the safety of students and teachers at risk. Diana Gardin is a Fort Mill teacher who also has children of her own in the district and she shared a similar concern.
“I’m a parent of a child with asthma and I am really scared to send him into a school and have him around a lot of people in the school at the same time," she said.
There were also other parents who spoke before the school board expressing why they prefer in-person learning.
Some argued for the sake of bettering their child’s education. Others said in-person learning eliminates the burden of virtual learning some say impacts families with lower incomes.
The district says it will work to provide tablets and internet access to students who need it.
Also, when students return to the school masks will be made available, there will be plenty of social distancing signage posted and there are plans to install Plexiglass shields in every school front office.
Ultimately, members of the board say the goal is to return to full in-person learning at some point in the upcoming school year, but there’s no exact timeline when that might happen.