From Ken Nicely, superintendent of Roanoke County Public Schools:

On July 15, the school board approved an expandable plan for the start of the upcoming school year.  I wanted to take a minute to share some highlights of our return to school plan.

The first day of school has been moved to August 24th.  The school year will end on May 28th.  Holidays, winter break and spring break have not changed.

Students in kindergarten, first and second grades will attend school five days a week.

Students in third through twelfth grade will attend school two days a week and will have online learning the other three days of the week.  Students will be divided into two groups.  Group one will attend school in person on Mondays and Thursdays.  Group two will attend school in person on Tuesdays and Fridays.  Schools will be sending more information about these groups very soon.

We’re also providing the option for students to receive 100-percent online learning through RCPSOnline.  Starting July 17, students may begin officially registering for the online option through a link on their school’s website. Parents who chose 100% online learning on last week’s survey should complete the next step by officially registering for this program.  Any student who originally selected on last week’s survey to receive in-person instruction can switch to 100-percent online learning, if desired.   If you’d like to learn more about RCPSOnline, go to our website at www.rcps.us and click on the RCPSOnline link (http://www.rcps.us/RCPSonline). Sample lessons and video tutorials are available.

For more information about the return to school plan, please go to our website and click on the link for return to school (http://www.rcps.us/returntoschool).  This plan is expandable and we hope that as conditions and health guidance changes, we will be able to have more students return to school in-person as the year progresses.

I’d like to thank our staff, our parents and our students for all the input we’ve received as we worked to develop this return to school plan.  We look forward to seeing our students back in class next month, be it in person or online.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the family questionnaire last week. We received responses for over 13,400 students which is very helpful for planning purposes.

As a reminder, under the recommended plan, students in grades PK-2 would attend five days per week and students in grades 3-12 would attend two days per week in person and three days online.

Under this plan, we asked parents to choose whether their student will attend in person as scheduled or will choose an option of 100% online instruction. Secondly, parents were asked to choose whether they will provide transportation or if their student will need to ride the bus.

Responses to both of these questions are very important since observing physical distancing in compliance with public health guidance limits the capacity in classrooms and buses. If enough students chose 100% online learning and enough parents provided their own transportation, potentially enough extra space would be created to expand the recommended plan. Most importantly, the responses were needed to verify whether or not the recommended plan could be realistically implemented. Analysis of the data has led to the conclusion that we will be able to move forward with the recommended plan. At this time, not enough parents have chosen 100% online instruction or committed to providing transportation in order to further expand the plan; however, we will remain flexible and responsive if conditions change.

A full report of the data analysis and conclusions are available on the RCPS website.

On June 25, I presented to the school board our recommended plan for the start of the 2020-2021 school year.  We based the development of this plan on some key factors.  First, the safety of our students and staff is a priority.  Second, in person instruction is best for everyone, and is essential for our youngest students.  Third, we going to adhere to the guidelines and recommendations of public health experts, the CDC, and the Virginia Department of Education, especially when it comes to physical distancing to the extent possible.

With these factors in mind, our plan is for all students in preschool through second grade to attend school in person every day.  While we would like to have additional elementary grades in class every day, we simply don’t have the space or staff in our buildings to do this and comply with current physical distancing guidelines.  Also, we will need some help from parents to transport students to and from school, due to limitations created by physical distancing guidelines on school buses.

Our goal is to have students in grades 3 through 12 attend school in-person twice a week and receive remote instruction the other days of the week.  This is the maximum we can fit into classrooms and still observe physical distancing to the extent possible.  We will work to ensure that siblings in the same household will attend school on the same schedule.

We feel it is safe for our students to return to school, provided that we adhere to physical distancing guidelines, and our public health experts agree.

Those parents, however, who would rather their student receive 100% remote instruction can choose this option.  As a reminder, remote instruction in the fall will be full, structured, new instruction with grades and accountability.  This is very different from the online continuity of education we provided last spring.

We’ve posted a summary of our proposed plan along with a detailed presentation on our website at www.rcps.us/coronavirus.

We understand that this is not any of us would like to start the school year and these circumstances create challenges and hardships.  However, as much as we would like to, we do not have space or staff to setup for physical distancing and include more grades every day.  While the state has given local school divisions the right to follow fewer restrictions, they are clear that we do so at our own risk and are still urged to following guidance from our local and regional health departments.

We are hopeful that this plan is temporary and that we will be able to have more students attend school in-person as public health guidance changes.

In the coming days, we will be sending another survey out to parents asking for specific information about transportation capabilities and 100% remote instruction options.