No decision yet on when Horry County Schools will return to hybrid in-person classes
Horry County Schools hasn’t decided yet whether students will be allowed to return to in-person learning next week, though that decision will be announced soon.
The district announced in December that all classes would be held remotely for two weeks when students returned after winter break, citing a projected rise in COVID-19 cases and an inability to track cases among students during the break.
Many had expected a decision to be announced at Monday’s board meeting whether remote classes would continue into the week of Jan. 18. But Velna Allen, chief officer of students services, said an announcement would be made by Wednesday. Allen was sitting in for Superintendent Rick Maxey, who was absent.
Cases have been spiking nationally and in South Carolina with every county currently showing high spread, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s weekly report. Horry County has consistently seen more than 100 cases confirmed daily for the past few weeks, and the positivity rate is nearly 30%.
HCS had operated the entire first semester under a hybrid schedule, with students attending in-person classes twice per week. The reopening plan specifies the district will continue to operate under a hybrid schedule until it is deemed safe to return to in-person classes five days per week.
Decisions on these schedules only affect students enrolled in the brick-and-mortar option, which is projected to be more than 80% of the district’s students, according to numbers provided by administrators with HCS Virtual. HCS Virtual, an option provided for students for online-only classes, to learn all online, expects 8,156 students for second semester.
HCS recently purchased plexiglass barriers to install on all students’ desks in anticipation of returning to full week, in-person classes, prioritizing elementary schools, and that installation has been completed at 19 of 28 elementary schools in the district, with the others expected to be completed by Jan. 18.
The district has confirmed more than 1,000 cases of coronavirus since the beginning of the school year among staff and students, including 101 active cases as of Monday evening, according to the HCS COVID-19 case dashboard.
Recently elected board members took their oath of office Monday, including Russell Freeman, David Cox, Shanda Allen and newly elected members Howard Barnard and James Edwards.
John Poston, who has been serving as vice chairman, was scheduled to take the oath of office, but he is currently hospitalized with COVID-19.
The board’s agenda had included an election of a new vice chairman, but that election was postponed “until all board members are present,” at the behest of chairman Ken Richardson.
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 8:06 PM.
