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ELKINS -- Adhering to guidelines provided by the West Virginia State Board of Education, students in Randolph County will be returning to in-person learning five days per week.
The Randolph County Board of Education held a special meeting Tuesday to discuss schedule options for the month of March. However, prior to the special meeting, the West Virginia State Board of Education passed a motion requiring counties to return to five-days-per week instruction beginning no later than March 3.
Starting Monday, March 1, students will return to school full-time, according to Randolph County Schools Superintendent Debbie Schmidlen.
Schmidlen noted RCS will continue to utilize strategies already in place, including wearing masks, social distancing, hand washing and utilizing Plexiglas.
Although individual counties do not have the authority to initiate full remote learning county-wide, Schmidlen noted they do have authority to address specific classrooms and schools if there were to be an outbreak.
"They did instruct, once again, that we cannot initiate a full-remote, county-wide closure; that would have to come from the sate department," she said. "In the event that we have a particular situation in a school -- or if we have a team at the middle school that, perhaps, needed to go remote for a few days based on too many quarantines or (what) constitutes an outbreak -- we have the authority to do that, of course."
Schmidlen explained the county has been actively utilizing a toolkit provided by the West Virginia Department of Education. This COVID-related toolkit outlines areas including instruction and learning, child nutrition, safe schools and transportation, extracurricular activities and more, according to the WVDE website.
"One of the things that we have done all along, when we started coming back to school, (was) continue to follow our toolkit from the West Virginia Department of Education," she said. "There are a lot of guidelines in the toolkit. It talks about what constitutes an outbreak, what to do when there is an outbreak, what happens if there are so many adults or so many students --we will continue to follow those."
Rachel Anger, board member, emphasized the local health department holds the authority to require individuals to quarantine, not the school system.
"We are in constant contact with the health department," Schmidlen noted. "The health department helps us make all the decisions. I do not decide who quarantines; we do not do any of that on our own. We work collaboratively with the health department."
In addition, several concerns were raised by board members during the special meeting in reference to student safety.
Lisa Wamsley, board president, referenced overcrowding on school buses, asking how this will be addressed by the county.
Assistant Superintendent Joseph Arbogast said students who live in the same household will continue to ride together on the bus, adding if bus runs need to be adjusted due to overcrowding, this will be addressed. In addition, masks will continue to be required at all times on buses.
"Our staff are vigilant about educating the kids as it is, especially the younger children that may have to be told more than once to cover your mouth or step away from your friend," Wamsley added.
Wamsley also inquired about large classes and how teachers and schools will accommodate social distancing, suggesting classes have access to larger rooms such as the media center or cafeteria.
Schmidlen noted she will be meeting with principals this week to address concerns -- such as large class sizes -- and create plans to make the transition "as smooth as possible" for students and staff.
If Randolph County is deemed "red" according to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Map, students in grades nine through 12 will revert to remote learning; however, regardless of color, students in grades kindergarten through eight will continue full-time in-person learning.
Schmidlen noted Pre-K will operate on a four-days-per-week schedule, meaning in-person Monday through Thursday with no school on Friday.