Gradual return to in-person learning to begin
Board of Education unanimously approved plan
The Clarkston Community Schools Board of Education unanimously approved a plan Monday night for a gradual resumption of in-person learning, starting next week.
Student s in Young Fives and kindergarten will return to face- toface classes on Monday, Oct. 5. More elementary grades will be added on Wednesday and Thursday.
Students in grades 6-12 with last names beginning with A-K will resume school Oct. 12. The other half of secondary students will resume school the next day.
“My meetings with county epidemiologists this week were positive and
the information provided to me continues to support this recommendation (to return to in-person learning,” Superintendent Shawn Ryan said in a post on the district’s website last week.
“Virus cases in Clarkston continue to decrease over previous reporting, and the most recent Oakland County Health Department report (7.7 cases per 10,000 people within our school district boundaries) indicates a stable trend.
“Also this week, researchers at Brown University, working with school administrators, released their first set of data from a new National COVID-19 School Response Data Dashboard, created to track coronavirus cases. It found lowlevels of infection among students and teachers and indicated that school transmission is much lower than anticipated. In fact, all evidence suggests that this is our best window of time for moving into the next tier of reopening,” Ryan said.
Like most Oakland County districts, Clarkston began the school year with only online instruction.
Clarkston offers an allvirtual option. The district required parents and guardians to choose between all-virtual and regular instruction before the school year started. They will not be able to change their choice until the end of the semester, a practice followed bymany area school districts.
Most area students have been learning from home since mid-March, when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered schools statewide closed to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
A handful of Oakland County schools have reported small numbers of coronavirus cases since the school year began.