LAURINBURG — The Scotland County Board of Education got to hear from teachers Monday about PPE preparedness and remote learning.
Britton Goodwin and Frances McLean both spoke to the board, with Goodwin speaking on PPE preparedness.
“I was asked to bring the teacher’s perspective and I did not want to bring just my own,” Goodwin said. “I reached out to many of my colleges from various schools across the county through conversations, messages as well as a short survey, and put together this information.”
Goodwin told the board he had asked teachers if they felt like they had enough PPE, what further PPE could the school system provide and anything additional concerns they had. Goodwin said that the consensus was half and half.
“For the half that felt like they could use some more included things such as the possibility of face shields, guards and partitions for desks, gloves for general use,” Goodwin said. “Overall, many teachers, not all but many, do feel we will be in good shape when we return to classes from online as long as we can enforce masks and we can enforce social distancing and we use consistent sanitation.”
McLean shared with the board that like Goodwin, she spoke with her fellow teachers to come up with a list of strengths for what is going well for remote learning.
“Student participation is up during our Google meets,” McLean said. “Technology has improved greatly and enthusiasm for being on the meet. The children seem to be excited now that they’ve gotten used to it.”
McLean also shared some of the challenges, which included parental involvement with students that need it the most, getting in contact with parents, grandparents not familiar with the technology and care for iPads. McLean was asked what her participation with her students is like.
“My class is unique because I moved up with my students, so this is my second year with these students,” McLean said. “So my participation rate is higher than the teacher who just got a new class. I have 17 students on my roster and out of that 17 I have 13 that consistently show up and do work.”
McLean moved up to second grade with her students and explained that the four who have not been showing up were submitted to the student support team.
Failing students
Boardmember Jeff Byrd, who will leave his seat at the end of the month, made the motion Monday to have students go back to school starting in January — but the motion didn’t get a second. He made the motion during the COVID-19 update presentation by Executive Director of Student Support Services Jamie Synan.
“In ninth-grade alone, there are 381 kids — there’s 233 kids that are failing at least one or more class, that’s 61%,” Byrd said. “In 10th grade, there’s 315 kids and 164 kids are failing one or more class, that’s 52%; in 11th grade, there’s 308 and 142 kids are failing one or more classes, that’s 46%; 12th grade there’s 344 kids and 151 are failing one or more classes … that’s 43%.”
Byrd added he understood everyone’s concern about the virus but they had to take into consideration the detriment to the students.
He also shared that, with schools being closed, it’s affecting the mental health of students and shared some information on what the state is saying about going back to school.
“I do know that our state health officials released a report saying that since people have been back in school there has been no evidence through contact tracing that open schools K through 12 has really changed or increased the rise in the coronavirus cases,” Byrd said. “The majority of people who test positive are 18 to 24 and kids have a low rate of infection.”
Reach Katelin Gandee at [email protected]. To support The Laurinburg Exchange, subscribe here: https://laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com/subscribe.
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