Va. Beach students could return to schools in February if positive COVID rates decline
Virginia Beach schools Superintendent Aaron Spence tweaked his proposal that would have started bringing students back to school next week, and now plans to bring back most students Feb. 1 as long as coronavirus cases start declining.
The updated reopening plan also would stop using strict coronavirus testing thresholds as the determining factor for whether students attend school in person or learning virtually. Nearly all students have been learning remotely since Nov. 16, when cases first started to increase throughout the region.
The school board voted 6-5 early Wednesday to adopt Spence’s new plan, which will bring students back in two groups in February as long as the community’s positivity rate shows a decline over seven days. Going forward, rather than focusing on coronavirus statistics, the district will close individual classrooms or schools based on the spread of cases.
Citing evidence from local experts and new studies, Spence said the division’s mitigation strategies work and that schools are not significant spreaders of COVID. Data from the school system and local physicians also indicates that closing schools has led to more depression and anxiety among students, as well as less reading and math proficiency in young learners.
Virginia Beach Health District Director Dr. Demetria Lindsay told the school board that she does not recommend that schools should restart in-person learning until community transmission steadily decreases — or at least stabilizes. She said due to the spike in new cases, the city’s health department doesn’t have the resources to do adequate contact tracing and case investigation.
Under the district’s previous plan, no students would have returned for in-person classes for the foreseeable future due to skyrocketing coronavirus cases. The eastern region is now averaging more than 1,200 new cases a day and more than 20% of new tests are coming back positive, both highs for the region and a sign that there is uncontrolled community spread.
Tuesday’s school board meeting, which was largely focused on this issue, lasted more than 10 hours and featured about 100 speakers, far longer and many more speakers than a typical meeting.
The school board eventually voted at nearly 2:30 a.m. to support Spence’s plan, with a tweak from board member Jessica Owens — that students return to classrooms only after the community positive rate shows a decline for a week and all mitigation strategies are met. Board members Victoria Manning, Carolyn Rye, Laura Hughes, Jennifer Franklin and Carolyn Weems voted against the motion.
If those conditions are met, pre-K through sixth graders — as well as special education students — are scheduled to return Feb. 1.
Three weeks later, on Feb. 22, the remaining older students would return under the same hybrid approach previously used — in-person half the time and virtual the other half. Students who have opted to remain virtual would continue to learn remotely. Families who want to change their choice — either to virtual or in-person — should reach out to their principals, officials have said.
Those dates represent a delay from what Spence pitched last week, in which the first batch of students would have returned next week, on Jan. 19.
Spence wrote in a letter to parents Tuesday that schools pushed back the plans because he was “no longer confident in our ability to keep up with contact tracing, which is a key component in our plan to return students to school safely.”
Mary Shaw, the system’s coordinator of health services, said Tuesday night that officials are working on ramping up capacity to effectively contact trace all coronavirus cases that appear in school buildings. Spence said he is assessing how the division’s mitigation strategies are working and that the second group’s return may be delayed if contact tracing requirements are not able to be met.
At the meeting, many spoke out both for and against the push for students to return for in-person classes. Samuel Sadler, a 9-yearold Virginia Beach student, said he thinks students should get back in school, in part, because he struggles with virtual classes.
“I was so happy to be in school in October. One reason that I want to go back to school is I want to actually feel educated,” he said.
“I definitely don’t feel educated when I’m looking at a screen all day.”
Leslie Frailing, a mother of two school staff members and grandmother to four Virginia Beach students, said she was concerned about the new plan and that school administration does not appear to want or value input from staff.
“I am concerned that our children will lose teachers, bus drivers, nurses and other staff, resulting in gaps and additional burdens on already stressed employees,” she said.
Some board members expressed frustration Tuesday night that the vaccination process for Virginia Beach school employees was not proceeding as rapidly as in the neighboring city of Chesapeake.
In Chesapeake, Superintendent Jared Cotton had said the district received 1,400 doses and many employee groups can start volunteering to get the vaccine today.
Virginia Beach, like the rest of Hampton Roads, is still in the first phase of vaccinations, though some other areas throughout the state entered Phase 1b this week. That second phase includes teachers, among other essential workers, people 75 years and older and those living in correctional facilities, homeless shelters and migrant labor camps.
Jack Freeman, Virginia Beach schools’ chief operating officer, said officials expect the first round of vaccinations to be available for school staff around Jan. 25.