August is coming up quickly, and that means that parents and educators alike will have some important decisions to make about how children should go back to school. There are no easy answers in the middle of a pandemic, but in Macon County, adults on both sides are working together to make the best choice.
At the June 29 meeting of the Macon County Board of Education, board members reviewed the results of a survey issued to local parents to gauge their priorities for the new school year.
Questions were centered on topics like transportation, available supplies, experiences with technology and general comfort level with returning to physical classes. While Macon County Schools won’t have the final say on whether or not physical classes can return – that decision will instead lie with the state based on how recovery benchmarks are met – the board members felt it was important to gauge how parents feel.
The survey suggests that the vast majority of families are ready to get back to the normal academic schedule. With more than 1,600 responses from parents, 86.8 percent said that they would send their kids back to school at the scheduled opening on Aug. 17, if the option were available. There are still some parents who won’t send their children back into the classroom on day one due to concerns about infection, which may prompt the school system to maintain a hybrid in-person and remote learning experience.
“We have a group of parents who plan on utilizing [remote learning] regardless of what plan we’re in,” superintendent Chris Baldwin said. “If we know that we’re going to have to offer remote learning at some point … we’ve got to plan for that somehow.”
Parents who said they would prefer to keep their kids at home also remarked on their preparedness. At least 85 percent of respondents said that they had access to the internet, a computer or tablet, math and science instruments, basic writing materials and other general school supplies at home. Macon County STEM coordinator Jennifer Love also mentioned that the numbers for devices and internet access might not be as encouraging as they seem in households with multiple students.
“I had a lot of parents write in the comments that a lot of them opted for the paper packets because of that conflict,” said Love, who conducted the survey. “If you’ve got a third-grader, a sixth-grader and a high schooler, and they’re all trying to use the one iPad that they have at home for the high schooler, you can’t all get on the internet at the same time.”
Parents who said they intend to send their kids to physical classes also expressed reservations about buses. Of those parents, 77.8 percent said they would drop their kids off individually at school in the mornings, and 58.5 percent said they would pick up their kids up the same way. Social distancing on buses will be a priority in the new school year.
The survey is available to review online at macon.k12.nc.us.