Oconee School Had Online Teaching Plan In Place Before Closure

Claire Buck, chief academic officer for Oconee County Schools, told Board of Education members last Monday that the closure of the county schools on March 16 did not catch administrators and teachers without a plan.

In the first remote, live streamed meeting held by the Board, Buck said that the school system starting making changes to its Plan for Continuity of Learning In The Event of Inclement Weather on March 13 and was prepared when the schools moved to digital learning on March 16 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, the system registered 139,675 student logins to Itslearning, the digital learning management system used by Oconee County Schools, during the month of March with the average session lasting two hours.

The live streamed meeting on Monday was the official work session for the Board of Education, and Buck and other school administrators updated the Board on what had happened since schools have been closed for the year.

Buck told the Board that State Superintendent of Education Richard Woods, with federal approval, has suspended all state assessments, including the Milestones evaluations, and Oconee County Schools has dropped all local assessments as well.

Brock Toole, chief operations officer for Oconee County Schools, told the Board that the county will be asking the school system to pay $99,675 as its share of costs for a replacement HVAC at the Civic Center, which is a joint facility of the county and Oconee County Schools.

Board Chair Tom Odom and Board Member Tim Burgess immediately criticized the county, saying this was another example of county leadership not fully informing the school system and Board of Education of county activities.

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