ORANGEBURG, S.C. — A large number of community members are making it known that they are NOT in favor of returning in person come this fall for the academic school year.
Surveys were given to parents and faculty several weeks ago and the results were less than flattering.
Strong reactions show in the survey that over 4300 parents, employees and community members combined took regarding school.
The results show well over 50% of those who participated say the do NOT feel comfortable with students returning combined with those who also say their student will NOT be returning to school in the fall at all due to COVID-19 risk.
Including a range of other topics the survey also assess how participants would like to proceed with education in the coming year with 45% saying they would like for instruction to be completely virtual while 37% say they would be fine with hybrid/blended learning and 17% say they would feel most comfortable with face to face learning.
"I think we need to pump the breaks" says Rachelle Jamerson-Holmes, "I have nieces and nephews and what happens is these are trying times and now that these kids have been apart I can’t even imagine them staying apart let alone social distancing."
District officials realize that the decision to return will be delicate, "I’m not concerned about having a quick decision but a right decision" says Orangeburg county school superintendent Dr. Shawn Foster
He goes on to say, "There’s an overwhelming percentage of our community that responded to the survey and said they are not comfortable either way. This is a circumstance where someone is not going to be completely happy so the one consistent thing I asked is not to focus on that but make sure we can deliver complete safety and we can communicate those things and people will have a piece of mind and know that we have a process either way."
Foster says a decision should be made about when they will return to school come this Tuesday at the school board meeting and details of how the school will play out will come at a later date
