MOUNT AIRY, N.C. — The first day of school looked different across the Triad with most schools starting the year online but in Mount Airy, one district welcomed students back in person.
"It just feels right to have the students and the staff back in the building," Dr. Kim Morrison, the superintendent of Mount Airy City Schools, said. "We have about 75% of our staff with chosen to come face to face and 25% that are doing one of our four virtual options, so we feel pretty good about the first day so far."
Morrison says the district has 1,700 students and 1,250 are coming into school buildings. The board voted unanimously to welcome kids back after a successful summer of camps and athletics. They're taking several steps to try to control the spread of the coronavirus. All students and staff have to wear a mask, they've staggered start times to help bus routes run smoothly with fewer students on each bus, large classes have been split in two for social distancing purposes and the district is cleaning and sanitizing more often.
"So for us to really do this we will need a little bit more funding flexibility for our professionals, for our cleaning and sanitation and for moving textbook money into technology support," Morrison said. "Some things that you just didn’t anticipate."
The district is supplying masks, cleaning more and paying more nurses, counselors and people to sit in classrooms and monitor kids while they learn from a teacher virtually.
Mount Airy is one of the few districts that is letting students back in the building at the start of the year. Morrison says more families are moving their kids into their schools for that face-to-face instruction. Enrollment in Kindergarten is up 25%.
"Everybody really wants [Kindergarten, first and second grade] to go back face-to-face," Morrison said. "They trust us the public really trusts us that we can do it safely and so we have gained quite a few students."
In the end, Dr. Morrison said she's glad the community supported having kids and teachers return to school this year even though it's created more work for the district.
"The easier choice is Plan C for school districts but it’s a harder choice for families because then they’re having to figure out how to make Plan C work at home," she said. "But the harder choice is Plan B and we’re all trying to work hard to get to Plan B we would love to get to Plan A at some point."