Board Of Education Hears Plans For Aug. 5 Reopening Of Schools

When Oconee County Schools reopen for in-person instruction on Aug. 5, students, teachers, and staff will be provided with masks and encouraged to wear them when social distancing is not possible, but masks will not be required for students.

Students riding the school system’s buses, however, will be required to wear masks on the bus.

Oconee County Board of Education members were informed of these plans at their work session on Monday through a series of reports by School Superintendent Jason Branch and school system administrators.

Parents can select a “distance/digital learning option” that does not involve in-person instruction, and parents have until July 15 to make that decision.

The school system had outlined the options to parents in an email letter and online on June 30, and a preliminary survey of parents indicates that just less than 15 percent plan to use the distance learning option.

Board members asked questions as Branch and his fellow administrators outlined the plans but never officially voted on the plans.

Just before the meeting, Ann Lynn sent Branch and the Board an email letter asking that the deadline for parents to make a decision on the instructional options be pushed back to July 20 and that the schools consider a delayed opening to allow for consideration of the proposals.

Board members and school administrators did not acknowledge that letter, sent, Lynn said, on behalf of a Safety First, Reopening Schools group that currently has 505 members.

The Board did pass a tentative budget for the current fiscal year that incorporates a $4.5 million reduction in state funding but maintains the property tax at 16.5 mills.

For more on the story, with a video of the Board of Education meeting, please go to Oconee County Observations.