The Red Clay school district announced its Phase 2 plan for reopening schools on Friday, September 25. The two options available include using a new online platform (Accelerate Education) or an in-person option. The primary concern about the online option is that many classes that students are currently enrolled in are not offered in Accelerate Education (i.e. many AP classes, arts classes, etc.). Another huge concern is that the online option is completely asynchronous (i.e. completely independent and self-directed learning with no real-time interaction with teachers or teacher assistance), which is not an effective way for most students to learn.   

While the in-person option may be better for many families, there are still many unanswered questions. Since class size will be limited for safety reasons, there is no assurance that high school students will be guaranteed the classes and/or teachers that they have currently. 

On the other hand, the in-person option is not available to all students, leaving some students forced to take the online option.  

We feel strongly that the “options” provided in this reopening phase do not comprise the education we were promised from Red Clay and fall far short of fulfilling the needs of our students. 

We strongly recommend that Red Clay maintains its teaching practices from the first marking period. Although we recognize that these practices are less than ideal, we feel that this reopening plan would take us from something that is imperfect to something far worse, where students are not assured that they would get the same teachers or classes in an in-person setting, and many of the classes are not available online. 

We urge the Red Clay school board to reconsider their Phase 2 options and allow schools to continue with their existing virtual plan.