After two months of virtual learning, Bibb Co. students will head back to classrooms

The Bibb County School District is bringing students back to classrooms for in-person instruction, starting with all pre-K through second grade students, incoming sixth graders and incoming ninth graders on Nov. 9.

The next Monday, Nov. 16, all grades will return. In-person classes will be offered four days a week, according to a press release from the district. Wednesdays will continue to be a virtual learning day, which the district said would allow teachers to prepare lessons for virtual students and allow staff to clean buildings.

Nov. 11 is a district holiday, and all schools will be closed that day. More information will be shared on the district’s website as Nov. 9 approaches.

The decision comes a day after the board of education met for several hours to discuss a return to in-person classes. The board decided to allow Superintendent Curtis Jones to decide how to proceed.

The Bibb County school district was the only major school system in Middle Georgia to postpone in-person classes well into the school year, opting to begin with two months of virtual education.

Jones announced Bibb schools would move to virtual-only learning from Sept. 8 through the end of October, the first eight weeks of school. This came after Bibb County schools initially pushed the start of classes to after Labor Day.

Jones published a blog post on Sept 21 to update the community on his decision to continue to offer online classes while other schools in the region went back to classrooms.

In that post regarding the initial decision, Jones said that it was due to data showing Bibb County having the most cases and deaths in the North Central Health District which includes Baldwin, Crawford, Houston, Jones, Monroe and Peach counties. The county still leads the region with nearly 7,000 reported coronavirus cases

Coronavirus numbers have improved in Macon since the peak in July and August but a recent uptick in cases and test positivity could mark the beginning of another spike.

This story was originally published October 23, 2020 at 3:27 PM.