The Pitt County School District is comprised of 38 schools, about 23,859 students and 1, 590 classroom teachers not including teacher assistants, related service providers, custodians and other support staff whom may be in a school building. North Carolina as of July 20th, 2020 has 101,000 confirmed COVID 19 cases and 1,664 deaths as a result of COVID 19. Out of those cases Pitt County has 1,215 of those cases and  10 deaths as result of those cases. 

Though a lot has been taken into consideration as it pertains to schools reopening, it is NOT a wise decision to open schools in August for the 2020-2021 school year. Though on paper and powerpoint the plans are exceptional it does not consider the day to day aspects of education  and provides a generalized overview of a plan. The plans that are in place, though great only work if every administrator, teacher, teacher assistants, custodians, related service providers and the students do exactly what the expectation is. However, students are not perfect and there will be occurrences where the students will not comply or do not know how to follow through with guidelines outlined by the CDC and the DHHS. Our younger students do not understand social distancing and these guidelines, our classroom teachers will spend countless amounts of time trying to explain. The mental health and social aspects of our children will be much more affected because though they will see their peers they will have to maintain distance from them. Moreover, there are teachers who are phenomenal in our exceptional children's department that come in contact with bodily fluids because our children need additional care outside of traditional education, where all students sit in their desk with paper and pencil. A lot of school procedures will have to change such as patterns of logistics within the school day and even during arrival and dismissal. 

Many teachers and school staff though we are only a few weeks away are unsure about the school year and what it will look like and even how feasible it is. Today on July 20th, 2020 a board meeting was held and a motion was made to move forward with plan B which was outlined by our governor. The governor left it up to each district to decide if they were going to use Plan B which is a combination of face to face learning and virtual learning or if the district could use plan C which is 100% virtual learning. The board members consist of the following individuals: 

Betsy Flanagan (Chair) Term expires 2020

Melinda Fagundus Term expires 2020

Tracy Everette-Lenz Terms expires 2022

Amy Cole Term expires 2022

Anna Barrett Smith Term expires 2022

Worth Forbes Term expires 2020

Caroline Doherty Term expires 2022

Benji Forrest Term expires 2020

Mary Williams Blount Term expires 2020

There was an 8-1 vote that schools will operate under plan B. The one vote came from Mary Williams Blount who voted for 100% virtual learning. She expressed her respect for her other board members decision. We need to consider who is voting and making the decisions in our district and use our vote when their term is complete. 

There are valued teachers, teacher assistants, related service providers, support staff and parents who do not agree with the Plan B option to provide education face to face in any situation at this time. It only takes one student or one staff member to expose another. Staff members have pre-existing conditions and though some leave or options are provided some are paid and some aren't. The options for staff is unclear or do we have a choice or a voice? As educators we understand the value of education, but not at the expense of putting even one of our almost 24,000 students or any of our staff at risk. Though plan B gives an option for students to stay home and come to school, they can be exposed at home. We can do all that we can at the schools to social distance, clean and follow guidelines however we have no control over exposure at home. COVID can be brought to the schools and infect and affect our students and staff. 

Everyone focuses on symptoms but there are individuals who have tested positive that are asymptomatic, how do we gauge these aspects of the virus? The decision needs to be reconsidered immediately. As educators we care not only about the academics of our students but we care about their safety and their well being in general but even more so while they are in our care at school.