Superintendent Dr. Baron Davis, Richland 2 School District administration, and the Richland 2 Board have worked under enormous pressure from state-level leaders, and particularly SC Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman, to safely reopen schools.  At times, district officials have been encouraged to make plans that are not contingent on local disease activity, such as when Superintendent Spearman stated,  "Many have expressed concern over the high rate of virus spread in some counties as defined weekly by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.  While these reports are important decision making tools, we cannot make all operational decisions based on any one document" (September 16, 2020 Memorandum RE: "Face to Face Instruction and Notification of Changes in School Operational Status").   

The consensus of public health experts has been that the best way to combat the spread of COVID-19 is to limit gatherings. As the CDC has stated, "The more people an individual interacts with at a gathering and the longer that interaction lasts, the higher the potential risk of people becoming infected with COVID-19 and COVID-19 spreading" ("Considerations for Events and Gatherings").  Therefore, the fewer days of in-person work the district requires for all students and staff, the fewer new cases we are likely to see in our schools and communities.  There seems to be little reason to require employees who have been working successfully at home since March to physically report to building sites, especially since, as of this writing, Richland County remains an area of "high" disease activity according to the most recent DHEC numbers (https://scdhec.gov/sites/default/files/media/document/COVID19-Recent_Disease_Activity_10_8_2020.pdf Therefore, we are asking that Richland 2 take the proactive and responsible step of letting all school staff work from home on Fridays during Phase 2.  While most employees would still be exposed to students and other staff members four days a week, this would at least limit exposure to what is necessary to supervise students for face-to-face instruction.  

Please sign this petition to call on Superintendent Davis, the Board, and district administration to do the following in order to allow all teachers the option of working remotely on Fridays, in order to do our part to mitigate community spread, and to keep our staff and the students they will be teaching face-to-to face as safe as we can:

1. Allow middle and high school teachers, who are already scheduled to have asynchronous learning days that would not require them to be physically present, to complete this work from home. 

2. Use a four-day model for elementary schools, as well, and allow elementary teachers, who have seen an increase in duties along with a decrease in planning time this year, to have Fridays to plan and work from home.