Will Horry County Schools alter its reopening plan after coronavirus case increase?
If Horry County Schools follows its current reopening plan, all students will be learning remotely starting Oct. 19, but the district is holding off on making that announcement while the board chairman is suggesting potentially altering the plan.
The plan, which the board and S.C. Department of Education approved before the start of the school year, relies on the state monitoring of local coronavirus case data to determine when students can attend in-person classes.
For the first month of school, Horry County has been classified with medium spread, which has meant a hybrid schedule, allowing in-person learning twice per week, according to the plan. But Thursday’s S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control report shows the county with high spread, which would require strictly remote learning.
But the district instead announced it would wait for the next DHEC report, which will be released Oct. 15, before making a decision, while also considering cases reported within the district.
HCS Chairman Ken Richardson said his understanding is that any deviation from the current plan would require approval from the board, which is scheduled to meet Oct. 19.
He expressed some skepticism with the state’s case numbers due to recent alterations and suggested a revised plan could focus specifically on the numbers collected by the school district, though he couldn’t specify how that would impact what would qualify as low, medium and high spread.
The district has identified 18 students and 18 staff members with positive COVID-19 tests during the past week, according to its case dashboard.
“One thing that’s not changed is we want to keep everyone safe,” Richardson said, adding that if the board is going to make an error in judgment, they’re going to make it make it “on the side of safety.”
If the district does want to make any changes, it will have the support of the S.C. Department of Education, according to a spokesman.
“We have asked all districts to inform of us of any operational changes,” Ryan Brown wrote in an email statement. “We would support and encourage Horry’s decision to remain hybrid given the mitigation strategies in place and the success of other districts offering face to face instruction in similar circumstances.”
