2-15-2021 BOC Joint Meeting with the Board of Education

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have Mifis if they didn't have internet services. Some had to have USBs and written materials. There was also a need to make sure educators were getting all the professional development they needed to deliver instruction online. There were a number of calendar changes and an entire redesign for providing instruction including a redesign of the master schedule through the course of a day and services for students in a way that was never before imagined. The team also redesigned summer school for students through funding from the state (Jump Start Academy). In preparation for the fall semester, the schools had to determine how to transport students. Students could only sit one to a seat, which meant additional buses had to run double or triple routes to make sure students were transported to and from school. The Governor and NCDHHS set up a 3-part plan for schools to go back to in-person instruction. One plan was Plan C which is completely remote, Plan B was a hybrid approach to promote social distancing, and Plan A which is less restrictive and does not allow for social distancing. The Board of Education made the decision on July 20 based on research and pandemic metrics at that time to start school with the Plan B hybrid approach. At that time, the positivity rate was 7.8%. The Board of Education reconsidered the decision 10 days later and on July 30, due to changing circumstances and because the positivity rate had gone to 16% and the CDC was recommending no school being in person with positivity rate over 5%, the Board of Education agreed to go to Plan C remote learning for six weeks. In September the Board voted to go back to Plan B for pre-k through 8th grade. The Board then voted at the end of October that pre-k through 2nd grade would attend 4 days a week. In December the Board made the decision to temporarily return to remote learning based on speculation that there would be a surge due to the Christmas holiday which turned out to be true. In mid-fall the schools started consulting with a collaborative and one of the doctors that was part of the collaborative who is a pediatric epidemiologist talked about the feasibility of Plan B being undertaken with higher positivity rates. The Board felt it was better to have students in-person so students began returning to schools under Plan B as of January 4th. The research study that was conducted by the collaborative stated that among the 60,000 students and staff in the study, there was very little transmission in schools between people. Last week the Board made the decision to bring back high school students to in-person learning beginning March 1 and expanded in- person learning for 3rd graders and exceptional 4th graders to 4 days a week. Once the Governor had made the announcement to prioritize educators to the beginning of Group 3 for the vaccine, the Health Director immediately reached out to the Schools with a plan on how to implement the vaccine to those who want it. Registration was conducted through school nurse Mary Hawley Oates for the vaccine for educators. Next Wednesday, February 24th everyone included on the Board of Education list will be provided with a vaccine. There is currently 800 staff registered. There is the capability to do 1,400 - 1,500 vaccines a day, however administration of the vaccine depends on the level of inventory available. The Health Department also contacted the private and charter schools to get their staff prioritized as well.