Are Middle Georgia schools planning to reopen in the fall despite the coronavirus?

As summer begins and the fall school semester creeps around the corner, Middle Georgia schools are working to develop plans to bring students back to campus amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Local schools, colleges and universities are figuring out whether to resume in-person classes and how to safely return students to campus.

The Bibb County School District has developed a plan for virtual summer classes while weighing how to bring students back to classrooms in the fall.

“It’s hard to learn to read remotely”

Superintendent Curtis Jones said schools will be thoroughly cleaned, like they are every summer.

“Our belief is that because the schools had not been occupied for a long period of time, there were no virus germs there inside the facilities, and we’ve been controlling access inside the buildings, so we think we have what we need to be able to clean,” Jones said.

Although Bibb County Schools has shifted to virtual learning, Jones said it is still important for students to have in-person interaction with their peers and teachers.

“It’s very hard to learn to read remotely. It’s hard to learn to interact with your classmates remotely, so we’re going to have to continue to work on that,” he said.

Bibb County Schools is working on plan so students can come back to school while maintaining social distancing standards, but it’s difficult to change class sizes when there is limited space and teachers.

“The reason it’s a little difficult is the situation continues to change. We don’t know, one, what the health conditions will be, and two, we don’t know what the financial condition is going to be,” Jones said.

Jones said he was informed by Georgia lieutenant governor and speaker of the state house of representatives to expect a drop in revenue by 14% due to people being unemployed during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Because Bibb County Schools doesn’t have enough space and might not have enough resources to maintain social distancing standards in a traditional learning environment, Jones said the district is exploring the possibility of having some students learn virtually or potentially scheduling specific days where all students learn online. That presents new challenges because not all parents will be able to stay home with their children.

He still wants to secure enough devices for every student to make sure they have the option to learn virtually: devices will become students’ new textbooks.

“To modify class sizes is a little difficult because class size depends on, at this point, having enough teachers,” Jones said. “To reduce class size is not as easy as some may think it is.”

Although Bibb County Schools does not have an abundance of space, Jones said the priority of Bibb County Schools while planning to reopen is to ensure that students can be educated in a safe and healthy environment.

“I want people to be aware that this has long-term impacts, so we need to be in it together and make sure we know where our priorities are,” Jones said.

Gradually reopening a campus

Middle Georgia State University has a team working to create a plan for their students and employees to come back to campus safely said Lee Greenway, director of communications.

“We will return to face-to-face instruction in the fall if the guidance from the governor’s office, the University System of Georgia and public health officials deem that it is safe to do so,” he said.

While students are out of classrooms, Middle Georgia State has cleaned and disinfected academic and administrative facilities and is moving on to clean and disinfect the resident halls, Greenway said.

“Obviously, the health and safety of our students and other members of our community comes first,” he said. “So all of these plans are being developed with their safety in the forefront of our minds.”

Although Middle Georgia State will hold summer classes online only, Georgia Military College Preparatory School will have limited summer school in person.

Pam Grant, principal at GMC Prep, said the school is holding summer school classes on campus for students who elect to attend. Students can also take summer school classes online or at another accredited school.

They expect around 15-20 students to come back to campus, but GMC Prep is enforcing strict social distancing guidelines and implementing other precautions, Grant said.

“We’re monitoring local, state and national guidelines that everybody’s putting out, and we’ll use those to ensure the safety of all the members of our GMC family,” she said. “While we’re monitoring, … this is subject to change if something changes in the world.”

Students and employees will have to get their temperature checked before entering the building, and they will have to answer a list of questions.

Masks and gloves will be available, and the school will enforce proper hygiene practices as well as have the school nurse on campus.

The students will also be spread out in four different computer labs to ensure social distancing, she said.

“We’re going to take the lessons that we learned and use them to guide us when we resume our full classes in August,” she said.

The reason GMC Prep decided to offer in-person summer school is because they believe students will be able to have a better learning experience with a teacher there to assist them, she said.

A “small liberal arts college”

Wesleyan College doesn’t have the same space problems Bibb County Schools is facing.

“One of the advantages of being a small liberal arts college is that we’re a small liberal arts college,” said Melody Blake, provost of Wesleyan College, with a laugh. “We have a lot of space, and we don’t have that many students compared to the universities.”

Blake said Wesleyan limits its class sizes to 30 people on a regular basis, so the classes of that size can simply be moved to larger areas to meet.

Wesleyan is also planning to deliver half of class instruction virtually in the fall semester, Blake said.

“They won’t be meeting as frequently in the classroom so we can spread out so that we don’t have people passing as much in the hallway,” Blake said. “It’s going to be a lot of work for our faculty this summer to get those classes in a hybrid fashion, but we think it’s the best plan.”

Having hybrid classes will allow Wesleyan to move all students to virtual learning if there is another spike in the outbreak in Middle Georgia, she said.

Students are allowed to create a schedule with all online classes, and 50% of the college’s student population live in single rooms, she said.

Faculty and staff are required to return to campus by July 6 as long as they are able and don’t have pre-existing conditions. Wesleyan has also asked its staff to rearrange its administrative offices in order to maintain a six feet distance from visitors when they enter the offices.

The college is also installing hand sanitizer stations at every doorway and requiring masks in public spaces, Blake said.

Mercer University officials said they’re working on fall plans, and that information should be released sometime in the next few weeks.

This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 5:00 AM.