Gov. Tate Reeves took the extraordinary step Thursday of closing all Mississippi public schools for a month to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
That means the Columbia and Marion County districts will be out until at least through April 17.
Both districts were on spring break this week, but the pandemic left administrators working overtime to develop plans to continue teaching via remote instruction.
Private schools are making the call independently about whether to remain open, and Columbia Academy said in a social media post Wednesday that a decision about next week would be announced via email and Facebook at the end of this week. The school said its administration and staff met and discussed a distance learning plan if school remains closed.
No cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Marion County, although Mississippi has 50 confirmed cases as of Thursday.
The Columbia school board held a special meeting via video conference Wednesday to discuss plans in anticipation of Reeves' announcement.
Superintendent Jason Harris said they will have a system for remote learning using both digital methods and paper and pencil. The city district a few years ago completed a “one-to-one” initiative that provided every student with a laptop computer. Board Member Rene Dungan commended Harris for starting that program, and he said he never anticipated it would be used in this way.
The Marion County School District contacted parents via an automated phone call Thursday to inform them of the closure, and Superintendent Wendy Bracey posted a letter on the district's website.
The district office will operate normal business hours but Bracey requested contact via phone calls and emails rather than face-to-face visits. The letter said employees will remain at home but will be available via phone and email during regular work hours.
"We will continue to educate our students. MCSD will have a link to curriculum which provides instructional resources for review and practice at your discretion with your children," Bracey wrote. "We will provide paper packets as well. We will go live with our at-home learning resources next week."
Also, free "grab-and-go" meals will be served from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. weekdays at Columbia Primary, Columbia High, East Marion High and West Marion High schools to any children 18 and under starting Monday.
No ID is required, but children must be present. The children don’t have to be school district students. Lunch will be served for immediate consumption and then breakfast will also be given at the same time for the next day.
Many throughout the state were eagerly awaiting Reeves' announcement Thursday as schools and parents remained in limbo about future plans.
The Republican, who is in isolation following a family vacation to Spain, called it "perhaps the hardest decision I've ever had to make" in nearly 17 years of holding elected office, saying he knows it will create difficulties for Mississippi families and that more learning is likely to get accomplished when students are in classrooms.
But he said he believes the choice is in the best interest of all Mississippians.
"We are all in this together, and we've got to work together to make sure we mitigate and minimize the damage from COVID-19," Reeves said.
The governor promised all school staff would continue to get paid their full salaries in a timely manner and said testing requirements would be waived.
During Wednesday's Columbia school board meeting, Harris said all of the district’s buildings are being cleaned extensively again during spring break and that staff will have set times to come in and gather materials.
The eighth grade through 12th grade students already have their computers, and the younger students would have to check out their laptops from the schools.
The district is planning to provide paper copies to students who don’t have internet access. Harris said when the district polled about two years ago that 75% of families said they did have internet access.
Harris said the district has taught students well this far and would have started reviewing for tests soon. He said now their goal is to stop a “summer slide” during the anticipated closure.
He noted C Spire and others have said are waiving data charge, and he is hoping other cellphone providers do the same.
Harris said assignments will be given if there is an extended closure and it will be “work-at-your-own-pace assignments.”
The district is working on plans to have teachers who are points of contacts with specific students to monitor they are getting work done and asking what they need.
For students in kindergarten through second grade, assignments could be picked up at a drive through. The district has talked about bus drivers delivering assignments that are not picked up but that’s on a wait-and-see basis, Harris said, because the district has to worry about protecting staff from coronavirus exposure.
Harris said the administrative staff has been meeting frequently to make plans this week and praised their “awesome” work. The board thanked them for working through their spring break.
Harris called the situation “unprecedented” and said he hopes they don’t have to go through this again during their lifetimes.
