Shelby County Schools Delays Reopening Classrooms Again

Memphis TN

29 January, 2021

6:12 PM

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By Laura Faith Kebede, Chalkbeat Tennessee January 29, 2021 Shelby County Schools is delaying its return to classrooms for a third time. Students will not begin returning to classrooms in early February as planned. The delay could put the district's state funding in jeopardy if a bill by statehouse majority leaders passes. In a statement Friday, Superintendent Joris Ray did not provide a target date to reopen. He said it was a "difficult decision" and that Gov. Bill Lee has not prioritized vaccinating teachers in the way Ray hoped to minimize chances of spreading the virus at school. "Right now, we are unable to provide a new target date for returning to buildings as we base our local decisions on the health and safety of all students and educators," he said in a statement. The Memphis district, Tennessee's largest, had planned to reopen classrooms to kindergarteners-fifth graders on Feb. 8 and sixth-12th graders two weeks later. The 90,000 students in district-run schools have been all-virtual since August. Charter schools in the district set their own reopening plans. A bill that state lawmakers may consider in the coming weeks would require districts to provide an in-person learning option to elementary students for at least 70 days this school year or risk losing state dollars. That means Shelby County Schools would have to reopen classrooms by early March and stay open the rest of the school year, which ends in mid-June. Ray has repeatedly said he would not reopen school buildings if he thinks the rate of the spread of COVID-19 cases was too high. "Knowing what we know about the spread of the virus in this county and across Tennessee, even the health department has acknowledged that Shelby County Schools has played an essential role in helping our community save lives and reduce the spread of the virus," he said. "We've come too far by faith to turn our backs on safety now." A district survey of parents and teachers showed about 32% of students would come, while only 17% of teachers would. The district has planned to reassign teacher assistants, behavior specialists, and central office staff to monitor students in classrooms where teachers had opted to continue working from home. The district also plans to hire up to 100 more classroom monitors to fill in when other staff were sick or on vacation. Even if students do eventually return to classrooms, the district's plan calls for online learning to continue so parents don't feel like they are missing out on a better learning experience if they aren't ready to send their children back to school. But students in school buildings will have in-person access to school staff to help through any issues with online assignments and keep them on task. This story will be updated. This press release was produced by Chalkbeat Tennessee. The views expressed here are the author's own.