GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Monday night, the Gaston County Board of Education voted unanimously to bring middle and high school students back to four days a week of in-person learning with Wednesday being a remote learning day.
The new schedule will take effect on April 12, which is the first day after the spring break.
Dr. Danny Benjamin with the Duke Department of Pediatrics shared COVID-19 data with the board which concluded the schools would be safe enough to open in-person learning more widely to students if safety protocols continued.
"I'm fully confident Gaston has the potential to be successful," Dr. Benjamin said.
He added school districts across the country have looked to Gaston County as a model to handle COVID-19 exposure.
"For a school district to have as much impact on not only state policy in North Carolina, that's really profound what you all were able to do as a community," Benjamin said.
School board member Robbie Lovelace said she was "very excited" to hear the data shared by Dr. Benjamin.
"Sounds like we're ready to go back to school," Lovelace exclaimed.
Gaston County Schools Vice-Chairman Dot Cherry voiced she, too, was "pleasantly surprised" by the data presented during the board meeting.
School board member Dot Guthrie asked a few questions regarding concerns she had about the ventilation systems in some of the smaller classrooms.
Gaston County Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Booker said the district has bought an air purifier for every classroom in order to address the ventilation issues.
The schools will continue to follow health and safety protocols such as daily temperature checks and requiring masks to be worn at all times.
When it comes to enforcing mask requirements with older students, Booker said while he's seen some masks fall below students' noses, their students "have been adapted very well" to the mandate.
He warned social distancing will be difficult in high school classrooms with some projected to hold 30 students.
"Our high schools have big classes," Booker said. "We have kids that are back so that potential [for 30 students in one classroom] does exist."
Even though the schools are moving from Plan B to Plan A, facilities will still be closed to the public in order to limit exposure and deep cleaning processes will stay in place.
Elementary schoolers were already moved to four days a week of in-person learning on March 1.
Dr. Booker said administrators shut down a classroom at one elementary school this week after a potential COVID-19 exposure.
As part of the Board of Education's vote, Booker is allowed to close individual schools or classrooms following a COVID-19 exposure.
Wil Neumann said his 16-year-old son has been doing well with two days in-person, three days online, and he questioned the point of changing back this late in the school year.
"We were all comfortable with the two days in, and that's been working well this year," Neumann said. "To change it now with such a short period of time left, vaccines are ongoing."
Jonathan Abernathy's daughter attends Hunter Huss High School, and while he wasn't a fan of online learning, he also questioned the timing of the change.
"Get them back into rhythm next year, yeah. But so late in the year to get them back in the rhythm now," Abernathy said. "It's kind of pointless."