EASLEY — The School District of Pickens County announced in a letter to parents Thursday that it plans to reopen schools for in-person instruction on Aug. 10 as scheduled as long as COVID-19 cases decline significantly.
District spokesman John Eby said while the goal is to provide face-to-face instruction as much as possible, the district plans to resume school under three scenarios. Those scenarios are: low risk, with a return to face-to-face instruction with safety precautions; medium risk, with face-to-face instruction as possible and intermittent virtual instruction on a week-by-week, school-by-school basis as needed; and high risk, with all virtual instruction for all students.

“Based on the definition of high risk, released by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control today, Pickens County currently falls in the high-risk category,” Eby said. “Social distancing, mask wearing and frequent hand washing are among the responsible actions necessary by the community to decrease cases enough for students to be able to return to school.”

Even if students are allowed to return to in-person instruction, Eby said the new school year “will inevitably look different.” Adjustments in the daily start and dismissal times and bus adjustments will feature elementary school starting at 8 a.m. and dismissing at 2:30 p.m., with the middle school day running from 8:30 a.m.-3:15 p.m. and high school students attending from 8:45 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
While pointing out that the district last year announced plans to separate elementary bus routes from middle and high school routes for the vast majority of students next year, Eby said state restrictions on bus capacity due to COVID-19 have forced high school start and dismissal times to be pushed later to accommodate additional routes.

“Some student groups may dismiss earlier or later than others to prevent exposure,” he said.
Another change in response to COVID-19, Eby said, is that rather than an A-B schedule, high schools in Pickens County will shift to a 4-by-4 block schedule this fall to reduce the number of weekly in-person contacts between students and teachers. The school district spokesman said that rather than the typical student sharing a classroom with approximately 200 other students per week under the A-B schedule, a 4-by-4 block schedule would have a typical student sharing a classroom with approximately 100 students per week.

From the teacher’s side, the average teacher will be face-to-face with approximately 75 students per week on a 4-by-4 schedule instead of 100 students per week on the block schedule.
“This change has a significant impact on our ability to perform contact tracing among students in case of COVID-19,” Eby said.
Eby also pointed out that the schedule change reduces the number of classes that students may take at once, which could reduce the challenge of completing work during virtual classes. The change also reduces the number of class preps at any given time for most teachers.

The district also announced it is expanding its virtual program to accommodate students who may not be ready to return to traditional classroom instruction, as well as those who found online learning to be a good fit during the pandemic. Informational online meetings for students and their families are planned at 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. July 7 for high school and middle school programs, respectively. A meeting for elementary school programs is planned for 6 p.m. July 9.

Eby said the district also plans to expand its 1-to-1 technology initiative to students in all grades next year and that students in its virtual program will be provided with a school device.
The district plans to release its return plan in more detail this week, Eby said.