COVID-19 has changed life as we know it and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. These changes have and will continue to affect the children of Marion County. The Marion County School Board has devised a plan to restart school on August 10th. Though the plan is a very good plan, it is not a plan that can be implemented in the tight time frame we are facing.

Virtual Option-The plan does include a virtual option, that would allow the students to have a sense of being by having a live teacher interacting with the students in real time following their school schedule. Working parents may be faced with having children alone at home trying to navigate new technology. There may be instances where internet access is non-existing or non-reliable.

In-person Option-Those students that will go back to a brick and mortar building, though they will have the social interactions with faculty, staff and students; the execution of a realistic approach for the safety of the students and staff of our schools, is not at all obvious. And in the opinions of many not attainable by August 10th.

Other concerns with the proposed plan are transportation, functionality and flow at the schools, the lack of mandatory face masks or shields and consideration of how families will or could be affected if a child were to take the virus home or if a teacher became infected.

With the aforementioned concerns, the Marion County Branch NAACP Executive Committee  would like to offer a 2nd option supporting the plan to reopen our schools.

1.That all students will return to schools August 10th VIRTUALLY.
A.     That partnerships would be developed with local churches, to become virtual hubs for families that cannot afford to stay home with their children. And cannot afford daycare.

B.     This will allow faculty and staff to return to work, answering the question about educators and support staff needing to get back to work.

2. With a target date of returning to brick and mortar buildings August 31st.

●       This will allow more time to prepare for a safe return to actual buildings.

●       It will give time to collect data from the soft opening of the summer program scheduled to start Monday, July 13, 2020.

●       It will also allow for the careful consideration of how COVID-19 cases are being identified and handled in our county.