YORK COUNTY, S.C. (CN2 NEWS) Fort Mill middle and high schools returning to five days of face-to-face instruction on this Monday. Today marking one week since Clover’s schools all returned to the five day face-to-face model.
March 2020, schools across the county began closing due to the pandemic. Now – one year later, schools in our area are transitioning back into the classrooms.
Joe Burke with Fort Mill Schools, says, “We’ve been tracking everything going on with the COVID cases in our area, how the virus has been running…. Plus, we were looking to get a large portion of our staff receive the vaccine in the last couple of weeks. So, there were a lot of factors that play into it, not one that was a key over another but, combined it seem like the best time to get everybody back in the school at this point.”
Fort Mill school leaders say they’re excited to have students back but stress they will continue to monitor the pandemic’s conditions. Now, all Clover schools have been back 5 days, for a full week.
Bryan Dillon with Clover School District, says, “Both the board, superintendent, district administration, all came to the agreement that now is the time to make that next step. Which is what a lot of our parents and our constituents have been asking for, so, we felt that this was the time.”
As these York County school district return to five days a week and face-to-face instruction, other York County districts are still in the planning stages, considering what that return to school will look like.
Rock Hill School leaders sharing over that last year, the district endured a lot holding more than 70,000 Zoom sessions. As York’s leaders continue preparing to go back 5 days they’re looking back at lessons learned over the last year.
York District One Superintendent, Kelly Coxe saying, “I remember well that Sunday afternoon that we were all sitting there at the district office trying to decide what our plans were going to be. How we were going to bring instruction in a remote manner. We were stuffing packets, we ran buses that deliver packets to students, that was at the same time we started our meal delivery….So, to say that a lot has changed in a year would be an understatement for us.”
Looking ahead, Coxe, says the district has reached new heights, changing education for the better.
“At some point we looked up and realized it’s been a year, and look what we’ve accomplished. We sat down last week and took a session to just pause and reflect on how much work is actually gotten done this year. And as long as you’re putting the kids first, as long as it’s about them, all the other pieces fall in to place, they really do.”
In the video above, CN2’s Rachel Richardson speaking with school district leaders across York County as today marks one year ago, that schools initially shut down.
