School’s not out for the summer yet, but it’s getting pretty close.
When the Macon County Board of Education had its meeting on March 23, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper had just issued a new executive order that extended school closings until May 15.
That’s just one week ahead of when school was supposed to let out for the summer, although there are several teacher workdays left after that point.
Superintendent Chris Baldwin says it’s a lost cause to reach the 1,025 instructional hour benchmark for ending a school year. All state standardized testing has been eliminated for the current school year too, so exactly how the end of the year will work – including the criteria for promotion and retention – is currently a mystery.
“There is not a road map that gives us directions on how we’re going to get through this event,” Baldwin said. “You look back at 1918 and 1919 when we had the Spanish Flu. Even then, we didn’t close schools for two months.”
It’s been a hectic week for Macon County Schools as employees and volunteers have scrambled to reshape the education process to function from a distance. Even the meeting itself was evidence of intensive change, with school board members all seated six feet apart and the public asked to tune in via live stream instead of attending in person.
The board didn’t have a lot of answers to share on what comes next. The crisis has evolved rapidly over the last few weeks and it’s taken everything that the school system has to continue providing meals and instructional materials at a reasonable pace. Meal delivery isn’t guaranteed to continue over spring break yet, although school officials are confident money won’t be an issue.
“If this ain’t a time to pray, I don’t know when is,” board member Tommy Cabe said.
The only thing the board was certain of was the commitment of local residents to maintaining as much normalcy as possible. Board members lauded teachers and principals for their quick work in devising a distance curriculum, as well as parents who have become homeschool teachers under remote learning and volunteers who have lent their time to meal delivery.
Board member Fred Goldsmith proposed a resolution to commend the community’s valiant efforts and that resolution was adopted unanimously.
“Everybody on the staff had done their homework ahead of this,” Goldsmith said. “Everything got implemented beautifully. … It’s been unbelievable.”
Furthermore, the school board members reiterated their commitment to eventually providing closure to the school year’s athletics, academics and a proper graduation for outgoing seniors and asked that the community continue to support them as they weigh their next steps.
“We will get through this by working together,” Baldwin said. “You don’t ever want to go through a crisis like this, but if you’re going to go through a crisis, Macon County is where I want to be.”