By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
With nationwide closings and cancellation of events in light of the Coronavirus, area officials are discussing plans and procedures.
The first case of the virus has been reported in Montgomery County Friday, and local Superintendents of Education have begun to take the necessary steps to potentially move classes to online only.
This all started Friday, March 13, when State Superintendent of Education Greg Mackey released the following statement:
“Based on guidance issued by the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) on March 12, 2020, I am revising my guidance to you to include the following components:
As soon as possible, and no later than March 20, 2020:
To cancel or limit any event where it would be expected to have 500 or more people gathered. This would include performances, plays, athletics, conferences, etc. Please note that amended activities may still be appropriate if you can limit attendance.
To postpone or cancel any and all field trips, whether inside or outside of Alabama.
Please consider this guidance as applicable through April 30, 2020. We will re-assess at that time based on guidance from ADPH.
In addition, we are correcting the LEA guide that went out yesterday. It should have said that we will close any school for 24-48 hours upon a confirmed case of COVID-19 in that school community, not the entire district.”
Locally, Autauga County Superintendent Spence Agee says that the Autauga County School System will have a half day for students on March 19th. Students will be released at noon.
The rest of the day will be used to train teachers how to use and navigate online classroom systems such as Edgenuity.
Elmore County Superintendent of Education Richard Dennis says no schools will be taking half days but that they will provide teachers K-12 with training courses and refreshers on online class platforms at the beginning of next week.
“We are not closing any schools unless told to do so by Gov. Ivey,” Dennis said. “However, we have been reviewing surveys that we sent out last week that determines if our students have access to a computer, the internet and what type of internet provider they have in their home. If it gets to point where we have to move to online classes, our 6-12 grade students will be using the virtual platform Edgenuity, while our K-5 will either use Odysseyware or Google Class.”
Dennis also said that Elmore Schools are going ahead
and cancelling any extracurricular activities before the March 20 deadline that
was presented by Superintendent Mackey.
This is an ongoing
story with more updates to come.
