Parent Request For Delay In Decision On School Options Rejected

About 40 parents showed up at the central offices of Oconee County Schools in Watkinsville on Wednesday morning to ask school administrators to delay the deadline for parents to make a decision on whether their children will attend school in-person or remotely starting on Aug. 5.

They also asked Superintendent Jason Branch and Board of Education members to come out to meet them and answer questions about the plans for the Aug. 5 reopening.

No one from the school system spoke with the group, and Anisa Sullivan Jimenez, director of Communications for the schools, said after the gathering broke up that the deadline of midnight on Wednesday remained in place.

Parents are required to go online and specify for each of their children if the child will be attending classes in person or choose the distance/digital learning option.

The children of parents who don’t respond will be assigned to in-person learning.

The assembled parents were spread out in a circle in the parking lot in front of the school offices and took turns with a bullhorn making their plea for more time, for more consideration of the needs of teachers and staff, and for mandatory masks.

Two adults and an accompany child, not wearing masks, walked into the center of the group and tried to challenge the speakers, but police intervened and the three left without incident.

For more on this story, please go to Oconee County Observations.