Jackson County School District finalizes reopening plans
Following a board meeting tonight and just over a week before classes are set to resume, the Jackson County School Board approved a reopening plan.
The Jackson County School Board has approved a plan to reopen schools ahead of the students scheduled return on August 6th.
Schools will follow a traditional learning format as close to normal as possible. Mask-wearing for students is not mandatory, but encouraged and bus schedules will operate normally with sanitary measures in place. Superintendent Dr. John Strycker said, “It’s a tough balance of giving those kids that normalcy that we had, my age group had, and still are some of my best memories, and relationships, but yet considering the safety.”
For students with documented health related issues or concerns about returning, a virtual option or learning through paper packets will be available. Dr. Strycker says the district continues to monitor the latest COVID-19 cases in the county with officials from Coastal Family Health and Singing River Health System and will rely on data throughout the academic year to make adjustments. “Those numbers will drive our decisions because that’s considering the safety and well-being of the students are those numbers of confirmed cases.”
During the meeting, school board members praised the process that led to this plan. School Board Member Troy Frisbie said, “It wasn’t Dr. Westfal and Dr. Strycker working in a bubble and everybody nodding their head in agreement. It was everybody had a chance and they did, and so when you’ve got that many in consensus agreement on how to reopen a school district, I think you’ve got a pretty good plan.”
As the countdown continues until students return to the halls of each school, Dr. Strycker says community collaboration will be important as everyone navigates these new guidelines. “I’ve talked to 80 to 100 community members over the past three weeks, and I want to thank those people, because really the conversations were, we’re in this together, what do we need to do?”
Leave a Reply