The waivers by the Mississippi Board of Education allows school districts to decide how they will reopen. This includes more flexibility in scheduling start and end dates for the 20-21 school year. School districts can choose a combination of in-person, online or hybrid classes to meet the required 180 days of instruction. The types of schedules may vary among schools in the same district to meet the different learning needs of students in elementary, middle and high school.
Ronnie McGehee, Executive Director of the Mississippi Association of School Administrators, says reopening school buildings will be difficult. “There’s a number of things that have to be considered to return because we are in unprecedented times. We’re visiting with our members and talking about is plan, plan, plan," says McGehee. "You’re gonna have plan for disruptions, you’re gonna have to plan for reentry, you’re gonna have to plan for an adaptation of the new school day.”
McGehee says another obstacle is finding transportation for students while trying to maintain social distancing. He says “We struggle to get the proper number of bus drivers. So people transportation is a huge issue when you look at every other seat or some kind of barrier they’re describing between busses. So that one’s going to be a huge hill to climb.”
The Mississippi Department of Education has requested 250 million dollars from legislators to put towards improving online education. The department wants to purchase computers or tablets for every student in the state, provide internet connectivity, and training for online teaching, During the Board of Education meeting Thursday, board member John Kelly says he is pleased to see CARES Act funds being used to improve the state’s education. He says “This is such a wonderful opportunity for this state, and I would go one step further and say that absent COVID-19 an the funding that came with that, we probably would have never seen this kind of investment in the school districts of Mississippi in my lifetime.”
The Board of Education has decreased the number of daily instructional hours required from 5 and a half hours to 4 hours per day to help districts develop class schedules.
