Chesapeake schools bringing students back next week
School district also rolling out vaccines for staff
After a two-week pause of in-person learning, Chesapeake public schools will begin bringing students back to the classroom. The decision to stay with the plan after the holiday break comes as the city grapples with one of the highest positivity rates of coronavirus cases in the region.
Meanwhile, the school district is poised to become the first in Hampton Roads to offer doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to its employees.
Starting Wednesday, all elementary, intermediate and primary employees along with therapists, health services employees, custodians, bus drivers and others including special education teachers who provide personal care services can volunteer to get the vaccine. The district received 1,400 doses, according to Superintendent Jared Cotton.
All middle and high school employees are slated for the second group, starting Jan. 27. The third group for central office employees starts Feb. 18. The vaccinations will be given out by appointment only.
Certain areas of Virginia entered the next phase of vaccinations on Monday, but none were in Hampton Roads. Those in Phase 1b include front-line essential workers, people 75 and older and people living in correctional facilities, homeless shelters or migrant labor camps. Teachers are part of the front-line essential workers group.
A school spokesman said in an email the division was contacted by the Chesapeake Health Department on Friday telling them they had vaccines. The doses would have gone somewhere else had the district not found a way to give them out, according to the spokesman.
Neither Chesapeake nor any other locality in Hampton Roads has announced it has moved into the 1b phase. In a Facebook post, the Chesapeake Health Department wrote Monday it was wrapping up Phase 1a as it prepared “for the deployment of Phase 1b.”
There is more of a “blended transition” from one phase to the next, Dr. Nancy Welch, the city’s health director, wrote in an email late Monday night. The city has already vaccinated over 100 members of the fire department “as we pulled from both 1a and 1b when there were unfilled or cancelled vaccine appointments,” Welch wrote in her email.
She said they didn’t want to waste vaccine or “lose vaccine opportunity.”
To accommodate giving out the vaccines, the School Board approved a change in the schedule to allow for time when vaccine clinics are open.
“We are fortunate to be included early in the rollout process,” Cotton said Monday night.
Next Tuesday, elementary students who selected an on-campus learning option will return to the classroom five days a week. Middle and high school students who fall under the same option will return the same day under a blended model of two days on campus, three days at-home learning.
The district said it ordered new clear shields for elementary students’ desks to help prevent the spread of the disease.
The district has one of the most aggressive plans in the region to bring students back into the buildings. Other divisions have opted to stay virtual amid the pandemic.