Clay board of education enacts mask requirement for students
News August 18, 2021
HAYESVILLE, Ga – Clay County Board of Education issued a mask mandate just a few days before the start of the school year.
The policy will revisit the decision on September 7 to determine if the mask requirement needs to continue. On July 26, the board decided masks could be a parent option. At that time, Clay County reported only 10 active cases.
As of August 18, Clay County recorded 64 active cases, 2 positive school staff, 1 quarantined, 13 positive students, and 21 quarantined students.
Federal regulation already mandates masks to always be worn on buses. Disposable masks will be available on every bus. Additionally, the school system will provide five cloth masks to students.
Towns County Elementary closed this week because of staff and student cases within the school. Towns County began the 2021-2022 year just two weeks ago.
Several factors went into the decision including NCDHHS and Strong Schools quarantine guidelines and learning habits of Clay County Schools (CCS) students.
“The goal is to have face-to-face instruction at least five days per week as close to normal as possible,” Superintendent Dale Cole explained. “Our second graders have never had a full year of school.”
NCDHHS policy states that students within close contact with a positive case while wearing a mask do not need to quarantine. However, both students the positive case and potentially exposed child need to be properly wearing a mask at the time. The quarantine exemption does not include extracurricular activities or athletics, just the classroom setting.
“Optional masking will likely lead to multiple quarantines among students and staff creating default remote instruction for much of the time the next few months,” Cole stated. “So as the situation changes, we have to make decisions.”
Board Chairperson Jason Shook explained that a majority of students struggled to adjust to online education and forcing a child to juggle between in-person and online isn’t beneficial to them.
Data from last year showcased the learning hurdles, especially in math. For the majority of 2020-2021, students were either online or only in person two to three days a week.
The health department has final authority on who needs to quarantine or not. The school can’t override a decision made by the health department.
Online Learning Option
The virtual option will continue to be available for parents who requested it. As of August 18, 44 requests had been made. Superintendent Cole explained the number could drop with a mask mandate in place.
The cost of virtual learning per student is between $1,500 – $2,000 for K-8 and $3,000 for high schoolers. CCS has federal funding to cover these costs. The board will revisit the necessity of the online option for the second semester.
To try and limit community spread, the schools will be disinfected on Wednesdays and weekends. Field trips will be canceled or postponed for the next month.
Visitors will be allowed in the office area only and must wear masks.
As far as sporting events, masks must be worn on the sidelines and on activity buses. Spectators aren’t expected to wear masks at this time. Gyms will be disinfected after every game. CCS policy for athletics mirrors the procedures in place with the rest of the conference.
No masks required at CCS for now
News August 9, 2021
HAYESVILLE, NC – Clay County students will be returning on August 23, 2021, and this year masks are optional for students and staff for now.
During the July 26, 2021 board meeting, the members voted to not require masks for the upcoming year. However, parents can send their children to school masked if that’s their preference.
83 percent of teachers were in favor of optional masks for this school year. School nurses recommended following NCDHHS and CDC guidance, which requires masks for K-8 for all staff and students. They cited masks’ effectiveness last year.
Only 1 percent of 12–17-year-olds in Clay County have been vaccinated and 34 percent of residents are fully vaccinated.
Current CDC guidance asks that everyone, including vaccinated individuals, wear a mask indoors if in an area of substantial or high transmission. Clay County is listed as a high transmission community by the CDC. Case data demonstrated a 22 percent change in 7-day totals in the area. Many southern states are seeing COVID-19 cases rise as the Delta variant works its way across the region.
Since Clay County Schools (CCS) aren’t requiring masks, online learning will remain an option for families who don’t want to potentially expose their children to COVID-19. However, this year, the school system will be using an online academy. CCS teachers won’t be providing in-person and remote learning to students.
Parents who wish to participate in online learning must inform their child’s principal by August 18.
Any student moved to fully remote instruction during Semester 1 must remain on fully remote instruction through December 22, 2021.
The parent must notify the principal that the student will be returning for Semester 2 by December 17th.
Cautionary measures such as quarantine and isolation for students and staff who are exposed, experiencing symptoms, or test positive for COVID-19 will remain in place.
CCS board applied for grant funding for onsite COVID-19 during the board meeting as well. If received, the $100,000 grant would connect them to a vendor for rapid tests, in-depth testing, and the hiring of either a nurse or nurse’s assistant.
Parents still have the option to refuse the testing of their child for COVID-19.
The in-house testing should help CCS isolate COVID-19 cases within the school system and hopefully prevent quarantining of entire classrooms.
Online learning affects students math proficiency
Clay County Schools, News December 5, 2020
HAYESVILLE, Ga – According to data presented during the November board of education meeting, Clay County students are beginning to experience the online learning slide.
Two separate diagnostic tests, I-Ready and NC Check-ins demonstrated concerning statistics, specifically in mathematics. I-Ready diagnostics align with the curriculum. NC Check-ins breaks down the EOG tests and developed by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
“Math is a subject that is going to be much more impacted by infrequent attendance in school. Missing steps, lessons, that sort of thing, Math has taken the biggest hit,” Superintendent Dale Cole said.
I-Ready tested students in kindergarten through second grade in math and second through fifth grade in reading. Students took the first diagnostics between August 24 and September 4. The second test takes place after Thanksgiving, and results will be presented at the December 14 board meeting.
I-Ready breaks students into three tiers: one, two, and three. Tier One recognizes students who are at grade level or above. Tier Two represents students testing below grade level. Tier Three students are considered at-risk.
Last year in math, the I-Ready diagnostic placed 28 percent of students in Tier One, and now, 19 percent of students are Tier One. The number of Tier Three students decreased by three percent.
“There’s that expansion in Tier Two that shows a significant portion of students have fallen a grade level behind. With [COVID-19], they’ve gotten half the instructional time, face-to-face this fall,” Cole explained, “I do think there are some things you can do through online teaching, but math is harder.”
Fourth grade, in particular, exhibits several students falling behind in the curriculum, but the at-risk numbers drop from fourth to fifth grade. Eighth grade students shot up in proficiency from seventh grade.
However, in reading, the elementary students have demonstrated marked improvement from the last school year. Still, from year to year, the Tier Three students increased from first grade to second grade.
Current seventh grade students are a concern for Superintendent Cole in reading as several students moved down a tier from last year to this one.
NC Check-in Results
Students in third through eighth grade took the NC check-ins for reading and map. Fifth and eighth grade students took the science check-in. The tests were given in October and November and aren’t required by the state. NC Check-in tests to standards. Since the state dictates the standards, teachers might not have taught those at the test time.
“It gives us three data points to look at for our students. It’s dangerous to put all your eggs in one basket on one number – that number might not be accurate. We can look at our diagnostics, NC Check-in, and teacher grades,” Cole stated.
In reading, the average test scores across the grades fell around 60 percent, except seventh and eighth had a score of 59.4 percent.
Cole felt that an average score of 60 percent was decent for these tests, given that teachers had yet to teach all the standards.
In math, third and fourth tested with average scores of 40 percent. Fifth, sixth, and eighth received average scores within the 30 percent range. Seventh grade had an average score of 27.9 percent.
“We had much more of a concern for math. You’re going to see a big drop off for math as compared to reading,” Cole said. “Math is a struggle in online learning. I’m not going to make excuses; the scores are what they are. We’ve got to get better.”
He also hopes to see changes now that students will be back in the classroom for four days. Additionally, Cole urged parents to motivate and engage students to complete their work.
The average score for science in fifth grade was 59.2 percent and 67.6 percent in eighth grade.
The MTSS will provide students with tools to succeed.
Failing students are being encouraged to return to in-person instruction. So far, 30 students have returned to school. The number of failures in a remote cohort/online learning went down by 13 between the first and second progress reports. Students declining in all four subjects went down from 12 percent to 7 percent, but subject-specific failures went up at the middle school. In particular, math failures increased.
A mentoring program is in place at the high school to help students get back on track. Students and teachers will have weekly meetings, goal setting, and parent check-ins. Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS) is being used to help students and teachers improve the quality of learning. It uses data to build “scaffolds” around each student to promote achievement. Some students will require more support than others. It focuses on instruction, curriculum, and environment.
Clay County Schools establish end of year grading plans
Clay County Schools, Community May 5, 2020
CLAY COUNTY, N.C. – Clay County School System (CCS) implemented specialized policies in accordance with NCSBE for students’ end of year grading.
State leaders wanted the grading to positively impact students whose homes suddenly became their classrooms. As a result, students couldn’t receive a failing grade and assignments turned in after March 13 are held at a minimum. Only students who were previously failing before the schools closed and they made zero effort to bring up their grades.
How students will be assessed differs according to grade level. Kindergarten through Fifth will not receive a grade, but feedback on individual progress.
Middle schoolers (6-8) will receive passing or withdrawn course marks and can make up credits at a later date.
Ninth through Eleventh students will have an option on how they their grades are recording. Option One: they can receive their numeric grade as of March 13 or currently if that grade is higher.
Option Two: They can take a passing or withdrawn grade. Withdrawn scores won’t receive credit, but students have a make-up opportunity.
CCS counselors are creating recommendations for high school students and parents to review before they make a final decision.
For high school seniors, CCS pulled the grades from March 13 if those scores were essential for graduation. If they were failing, they could raise grades through online learning. Non-essential courses could receive a withdrawn mark. College courses fell under the college’s jurisdiction.
At this time, prom and graduation will hopefully be rescheduled for July depending on the state’s reopening plans.
“All of our students are given 13 years to master the standards to that are required to earn a diploma in the state of North Carolina,” said Superintendent Dale Cole. “A grade is nothing more than our attempt to measure progress.”
Superintendent Dale Cole during the Facebook Live meeting
Cole went on to say that he believed the state made a decision between “equity and accountability.” Grades are often used to compare student progress, but the school can’t control a student’s resources outside of their education.
“If we were going to going to grade kids based on work they were doing at home, and we don’t control the environment in which they’re working,” explained Cole. “There’s a lot of inequity. It would not be fair to give grades to students when they don’t have equal access resources or possibly an environment in which they can succeed.”