MEMPHIS, Tenn — About one in three Shelby County Schools students plan to return to in-person instruction in January, but only about one in six teachers say they will.
SCS released their teacher and student survey data showing only 17% of teachers surveyed in schools run directly by SCS chose in-person instruction. Thirty-two percent of SCS students are expected to return in-person.
The district says if a teacher is virtually teaching a class of students in a physical school building, there will be either another teacher, assistant or other certified staff on hand to monitor.
There were 541 new COVID-19 cases reported in Shelby County Tuesday, and four more deaths.
Earlier this year the district discussed the possibility of some students returning in a phased-in approach. But those stats have some questioning an in-person learning option at all.
Related: SCS says students may return to in-person classes in January
“I don’t know how we would be able to maintain a system on both the virtual and the open school platform,” said Keith Williams, executive director of the Memphis-Shelby County Education Association. “It is difficult enough to try and concentrate on the virtual platform and I think the district should concentrate its efforts in trying to perfect one platform at a time.”
But Williams has reservations about that plan.
“To me, that’s very confusing. I don’t know how that would work, and I don’t think that this is the time, period, where this pandemic is rampant, to experiment,” he said.
Williams believes the current virtual learning platform still needs perfecting.
Other issues to keep in mind beyond the health of everyone on campus — transportation and food.
This week county commissioners questioned health department Director Alisa Haushalter about returning to the classroom. While her team meets weekly with schools in the district, she had this frank answer:
“For schools to safely reopen in January we have to bring our community transmission down,” she said.
Shelby County Schools said no one was available for an interview Tuesday, but said Superintendent Joris Ray is in the process of meeting with board members one-on-one to gather more feedback about a proposed reopening.