Greenville County Schools has released a new mask mandate policy due to Executive Order 2021-23 that was issued by the South Carolina Governor’s office yesterday. The mandate includes new information on an opt-out policy as well important new rules on quarantining and at-home learning.

The Greenville County Schools system will be continuing their Virtual Program into next year and registration is open.

During the 2021-21 school year, Greenville County Schools had about one-third of their students, more than 23,000, in the Virtual Program, where all instruction and schoolwork is done online. GCS will continue to offer this option for next year, the 2021-22 school year.

Registration closes April 23, 2021

Registration is now open to enroll full-time in the GCS Virtual Program and will continue through Friday, April 23, 2021.

The Virtual Program is staffed based upon early signup so if you want your child(ren) to do this program next year, be sure to register. There will be a waitlist if need be.

In an email to media, the GCS press office said that the current registration schedule is “based on an assumption the pandemic will no longer be a serious concern. If during the summer it is apparent school will open in the fall on an altered schedule or with pandemic protocols in place, and/or if vaccines are not widely available for all age groups, additional windows will be made available for parents to select the Virtual Program.”

To register for the Virtual Program, parents must have a BackPack account, which is where parents must fill out the registration information.

Changes to the 2021-22 Virtual Program

Greenville County Schools has instituted the following changes in the Virtual Program for the new school year:

• An increased emphasis on attendance in live sessions. Students will be expected to participate in live sessions at scheduled times. Exceptions based on extenuating circumstances must be approved, in advance, by the virtual administrator. 
• Parents who wish for students to return to brick and mortar instruction will be allowed to make requests. They are encouraged to make an approved transition at the end of a nine-week grading period.
• Students in the Virtual Program will be scheduled based on grade level and academic record, not by school.  This is a significant change for high school students, who will not be scheduled with teachers from their high schools next year.

The Virtual Program will not be offered at Specialized/Magnet programs such as Charles Townes Center, Language Immersion and preschool/self-contained disabilities.

Virtual Program Challenges

In the first quarter of the 2021 school year, GCS announced that grades were seriously slipping, especially among the students in the virtual program.

Out of the 72,832 students enrolled in Greenville County Schools, 16,047 have one or more F’s, which is equal to about 22% of all students enrolled in the county. 

Double the number of virtual program students have more F’s than in-person students. But even comparing numbers from last year between in-person students, this year’s hybrid eLearning and in-person students are having a lot harder time with their studies. Last school year, 5,327 students in in-person learning had one or more F’s and this year, that number is 8,566, a 10% increase. 

GCS announced several measures to try to remedy the causes. Progress reports have not been publicly issued yet.

Q&A

GCS has answered several questions about the Virtual Program in this document. And we interviewed Jeff McCoy of Greenville County Schools last summer specifically about the Virtual Program:

Thank you to Derek Lewis for providing these important updates from the Greenville County School meeting on January 12, 2021. This information was originally published on Derek’s Facebook page and is republished here with permission.

About Derek Lewis: Derek Lewis serves as a member of the Greenville County School board. Derek is also the Executive Director of Greenville First Steps, a non profit that funds programs to help parents and caregivers prepare children for Kindergarten. Derek’s is in his 6th year on the board, and represents Greenville School District area 24- which includes Augusta Road, Gower and Maudlin areas of Greenville County. Derek’s wife Hedrick teaches 5K at Berea Elementary school and his son, William, is in 4th grade at Augusta Circle elementary. Derek also serves as the chair of the School Board Advocacy committee- which helps to inform and shape public policy around education issues at the state and federal level.

School Absences

I have been contacted by parents who want to know what penalty would exist should a family who opted for Face to Face instruction decide to keep their students home for a week or two as county infection rates rise. The District has clarified that a student may miss school without an excuse for up to 10 days. And, if a student misses more than 10 days, the Administration from the school is granted the authority to review those circumstances on a case by case basis. So, a parent could keep their students home for 2 weeks, waiting for infection numbers in the County to drop, and not have a penalty to that student.

Extension of EFMLA

The 2020 CARES ACT provided up to 80 hours of paid leave for any employee who has a Covid-19 related absence (either from exposure at work or outside of work, or the exposure of a family member). This additional coverage allowed an employee to take this leave without using his/her sick leave. The 2020 CARES ACT EFMLA coverage ended on Dec 31, 2020. We hoped the CARES II bill would include an extension of this coverage. It did not, leaving our employees without this valuable protection. The Greenville School Board unanimously approved the recommendation from the Administration that we locally support our staff with a LOCAL extension of EFMLA through August 31, 2021 (and retroactive to cover any EFMLA eligible leave that occurred in January prior to this action).

Employee Bonus

Recognizing the extraordinary challenges our employees have faced during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Board unanimously approved a one-time bonus of $1,000 for ALL salaried GCS exempt personnel and $100 for all adjunct personnel. This action, with its $9.4m price tag, will be funded through fund-balance currently held in reserve from cost savings realized through the District over the past year, expenses from the 2020-2021 budget that were frozen in June by the Board, and from 2020 CARES ACT funding.

Wondering what school will look like in Greenville County Schools when they return on January 4th? Greenville County School leaders met and here’s what they had to say about their post-holiday plans for in-person, face-to-face, and virtual instruction in elementary, middle, and high schools.

Greenville County Schools, in response to questions asked by the community, and a petition calling for greater transparency released this statement on January 4th, 2021:

“Throughout this Pandemic and especially once planning began for a return to in-person learning, Greenville County Schools has been in regular contact with medical representatives from DHEC, Prisma Health, and Bon Secours, seeking guidance and expertise regarding the protocols we have adopted to ensure the health and safety of students and staff and our plans to increase in-person attendance.  Though only DHEC has the statutory authority to close schools, we have continued to seek input from experts who live and work in our community each time we have made a decision about revising or increasing in-person instruction, including last Thursday, December 31, when we affirmed our plans to return to school on January 4. 
Based on the many protocols GCS has in place to help mitigate the spread of COVID, none of these entities have at this time, or any time, recommended that we step back from our current or proposed operating mode.

Dr. Brannon Traxler, Interim Director of Public Health is our primary contact at SC DHEC. Because the local health systems have served only as consultants without any authority to open or close schools, and since our contacts at Bon Secours and Prisma Health have made it clear to us they are representing the expertise of their respective systems and not just individual opinions, we will refer back to those systems any requests for individual names.”

Greenville County Schools released the following statement announcing their plan for a return after the holidays, on December 31st, 2020:

“Today, GCS leaders met to discuss the recent spike in COVID cases and the district’s path forward.  As preparation for this meeting, specific guidance from medical officials at Bon Secours, Prisma, and DHEC was sought and discussed. 

In short, students and teachers in our traditional program will return to school as planned on Monday, with elementary and middle school back for five days of face-to-face instruction and high schools on Attendance Plan 2.  This does not impact students in the virtual program who will continue with 100% virtual instruction.

Greenville County Schools announced today that they are bringing back high school students come mid-January from 40 percent attendance up to 75 percent attendance. Plexiglass dividers will be used in high schools were six feet of distance is not possible.

Dr. Royster, GCS Superintendent, said that bringing back high school students has been a big challenge due to class sizes and space available, in addition to the fact that high schoolers tend to have higher number of COVID cases.

“We’ve known from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that high schools pose the biggest challenge when it comes to returning students to the classroom. This plan allows us to nearly double the amount of in-person instruction at high schools and return most Career Center students to fulltime in-person instruction allowing them to work toward their industry certification,” said Dr. Royster.

GCS announced last month they are bringing back middle school students to full-time in-person attendance.

How it Works

The new schedule for high schoolers will start on January 19, 2021.

Each color group (blue, red, green, purple) will have three in-person attendance days that never change:

• Blue—Monday, Wednesday, Thursday
• Red—Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
• Green—Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
• Purple—Monday, Tuesday, Thursday

On Friday, students will attend in-person classes three out of four Fridays each month based on their color group:

• Blue, Red, Green—January 22, February 19, March 26, April 30, May 28  (Purple = eLearning)
• Blue, Red, Purple—January 29, February 26, April 2, May 7, June 4  (Green = eLearning)
• Blue, Green, Purple—February 5, March 5, April 16, May 14  (Red = eLearning)
• Red, Green, Purple—February 12, March 12, April 23, May 21  (Blue = eLearning)

Students will engage in eLearning on days they are not physically in class. On eLearning days, teachers will offer streamed and/or recorded instruction.

Current Obstacles: Substitute Teachers

In an email to media last month, the district pointed out that DHEC statistics point to the fact that contracting COVID-19 at school is about half the rate of the community.

Even so, with the number of teachers in quarantine for possible exposure to COVID-19 and being sick with the virus or with another ailment, the district cannot fill classrooms with the adults needed to hold in-person class.

“With a significant number of substitutes who have refused all offered assignments this year, it is becoming increasingly difficult to fill in for absent teachers.  Media specialists, school counselors, instructional coaches, and administrators are all being called on to help supervise classes, but at the expense of their usual duties and responsibilities,” the district said in an email.

Dr. Royster said today that these current plans could certainly be derailed if cases continue to climb and they cannot staff schools.

If the COVID-19 Surge Continues…

As COVID-19 cases in South Carolina, in particular in our area in the Upstate, continue to increase, Dr. Royster said schools may need to close. He indicated that if school was supposed to be in session next week, at the rate cases have been increasing, many schools would likely have closed.

As indicated above, the school doesn’t have enough teachers to cover classes due to quarantining requirements for exposure.

The 2021-22 School Year

GCS released the calendar for the 2021-22 school year, which contains no inclement weather days. If there is bad weather, students will still attend class through eLearning.

The Virtual Program will also be available next year and the district said they will release more information soon about signing up.

Greenville County Schools have had a roadmap in place since the summer to bring students back to school five days a week for in-person instruction. Elementary students are back to in-person instruction and using plexiglass and masks to help prevent the spread of COVID. And last week, the district released sobering information about the high number of failing grades throughout the student body this year. Students in in-person instruction had better grades than those in virtual so getting kids back to school has been a priority.

Today, GCS announced that starting next week, middle schoolers will be transitioning to five days per week of in-person instruction.

How It Will Work

GCS has consulted with DHEC, who has given the green light to letting students get back to class in-person by wearing masks and having a plexiglass barrier.

DHEC says that students wearing masks can sit three feet apart instead of six feet when separated with a plexiglass barrier. DHEC also helped to design layouts for classrooms that fit this guidance.

Some of the classes will be moved to bigger spaces, like cafeterias and auditoriums, where social distancing can occur more easily. Class schedules will also be altered to minimize the number of students in the hallways at any given time.

Lunch, in most cases, will be eaten in classrooms with the protection of the plexiglass barriers between students.

Students will also be cleaning their own spaces as middle schoolers move around much more than elementary students do.

Drop off and pickup will also be altered and parents will be asked to bring their kids to school on a staggered schedule. There will be delays and the district is asking parents to be patient.

Health Concerns

Dr. Royster, Superintendent of GCS, said the district is constantly monitoring COVID spread and will adjust the schedule as needed. He said they may have to make the call to decrease attendance with less than a week’s notice.

He noted that the district is concerned about the upcoming holidays and possible spread of COVID. He said the district did not see any significant rise in the number of COVID cases following Halloween, which was encouraging.

Schedule for Transitioning Back to In-Person

Per GCS, this is the schedule for transitioning back to in-person instruction:

Sixth grade

1. Week of November 23 (Thanksgiving Week): ALL color groups attend in-person on Monday and Tuesday (November 23-24)
2. Weeks of November 30, December 7 and December 14: ALL color groups attend in-person Monday through Thursday
3. eLearning for sixth graders on Friday (in-person remediation for ALL middle school students who need it begins Friday, December 4. Schools will identify students and notify those parents whose child need to be in attendance.)

Seventh grade

1. Week of November 30: Attendance Plan 2 on Monday and Tuesday, November 30 and December 1 (students attend by color group)
2. ALL color groups attend in-person Wednesday and Thursday, December 2-3, eLearning on Fridays, plus in-person remediation for ALL middle school students who need it
3. Weeks of December 7 and December 14: ALL color groups attend Monday through Thursday, eLearning on Fridays, plus in-person remediation for ALL middle school students who need it

Eighth grade

1. Week of December 7: Attendance Plan 2 on Monday and Tuesday, December 7-8 (students attend by color group), ALL color groups attend in-person Wednesday and Thursday, December 9-10, eLearning on Fridays, plus in-person remediation for ALL middle school students who need it
2. Week of December 14: ALL color groups attend Monday through Thursday, eLearning on Fridays, plus in-person remediation for ALL middle school students who need it
3. Winter break: student holiday (Monday, December 21 through Friday, January 1)

Beginning January 4, 2021

Sixth, seventh and eighth grade students attend in-person school 5 days a week until further notice

What about high schools?

GCS says that they are currently at 40% in-person attendance for high schoolers and they are working to get that up to 60% by the start of the second semester.