Greenville County Schools will vote today on attendance plans: if spread of covid is high, 0 in-person learning or 1 day a week. If it's medium, 1 or 2 days a week in-person. If it's low, full in-person learning. Spread has been high in all counties for the past couple of weeks.

There are some technical difficulties going on with the livestream, if you're watching and wondering why it isn't playing. The district is pausing the meeting while fixing the link.

GCS Superintendent Burke Royster says if students are back in school at all (even 1 day a week), athletic conditioning will resume.

Royster points to several international examples: Denmark had an initial rise in cases after reopening school, but then a drop-off. In contrast, Israel saw cases surge after schools reopened.

He also references the Univ. of Texas report that the NY Times covered this past week, which looked at potential cases if schools reopened across the U.S.
This is the estimate for Greenville County:

This is something teachers have been upset about: Royster says in elementary and middle, Greenville's virtual program will have dedicated virtual teachers. But in high school, teachers may also be teaching an in-person class as well as virtual.

And here is the maximum number of students GCS will allow in a classroom if they go with 1 day a week or 2 day a week in-person learning. In general, the older the students, the more in a classroom:

Out of ~77,000 students in the district, only 54 had no contact with teachers this spring. Royster says that percent is low compared to a typical year, when the district has about 11% of students moving around the district.

District plans to address one of parents' biggest concerns: childcare. Royster says they are working on partnering with community orgs. to provide childcare. This will likely be announced later this week.

GCS plans to spend nearly $1 million on PPE and cleaning supplies, $1.2 million to replenish the 4,000 Chromebooks that were not returned last year, and $1.15 in other technology to facilitate virtual learning.

Royster says there are SOME high school teachers that are fully virtual, but only if they have a medical condition.

The district will be meeting with special education families by Sept. 30. They've developed a new instructional contingency plan that would improve on how educators handle IEPs and educate Sp. Ed. students if they are not in the classrooms, compared to what was done last spring.

Another concern I've heard: teachers who choose to do virtual will not be guaranteed a spot at their old school when it ends. Royster says they will do everything they can to put teachers back where they were, but they don't know how many students will return when this ends.

Royster says if schools opened tomorrow, the district would likely have students attend in-person for 1 day a week. The county still has high spread, but the trend in incidents is low, meaning case numbers and percent positives are trending downward.

That trend in incidents is the most important factor, Royster says, because it lets you know how the other two (case numbers and % positives) are trending.