BURLINGTON, N.C. — The Alamance-Burlington Board of Education voted to approve an updated reentry plan for students.
The district said students will not return to school for in-person learning on February 1. Instead, students and staff will remain on their current schedules.
The district approved beginning on March 1, elementary schools will implement a cohort model for grades K-5 students to return to in-person learning. Students will attend school in person two days for either Monday/Tuesday or Thursday/Friday. Wednesday will be a remote learning for all students.
The district tweeted, beginning on March 8, middle and high schools will implement a cohort model for grades 6-12 students that have selected to return to in-person learning. Students will attend school in person two days Monday/Tuesday or Thursday/Friday. Wednesday will be a remote learning day for all students.
The district also said families who selected remote learning can continue with that option.
The Board of Education will review today's approved plan at their work session on February 9.
ABSS says the delay to March 1 rather than February 1 will hopefully allow more time for educators to have access to the vaccine based on information about the Phase 1B rollout including teachers from our health department.
"We are hopeful that staff who work closely with children will be able to get the first dose later in January. Additionally, we are receiving a higher than initially expected level of response from parents who want their children to return to in-person learning which means that we will have to implement a cohort model of students attending Monday/Tuesday or Thursday/Friday with all remote learning on Wednesdays. It isn’t possible, based on current requests, under state guidance to have all students who want to return in person 5 days a week and still maintain the mandated social distancing in classrooms. Therefore we need a little more time to implement the A/B day cohort model to reduce the number of students attending each day."
The board will continue monitoring the situation with COVID-19 and plan to revisit the plan at their February work session on Feb. 9.