South Carolina School District is back to the virtual classroom

South Carolina School District is back to the virtual classroom

Pickens County school officials decided at an emergency meeting Friday, after nine days of in-class learning for the system's 15,000-plus students, the Grenfell News reported.

"We don't know if it's safe to continue as is or not," district spokesman Darian Baird said during the meeting, and other districts should pay attention.

According to the school district's website, as of the week of August 13, 142 students and 23  teachers staff have tested positive for COVID-19, while 634 students and 42 staff members are in quarantine.

The peak last school year was 85 students in January this year, right after the winter break, officials said.

Baird said four staff members and a student were taken to the hospital.

Officials said distance education in the county would continue at least this week, with the first two days giving students a chance to pick up Chromebooks such as a laptop.

Byrd said the district would announce plans next week by Thursday.

Slots for other areas are scattered from Monday to Thursday.

Union County students will be the only ones out of 760,000 students statewide still on summer vacation by the end of this week. They started on August 23

It's another school year completely different. Many schools welcome students back in person after the 2020-21 school year experienced massive disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

School leaders said students and teachers are welcome to wear masks, but they cannot be assigned even with another spike in COVID-19 cases. They also cannot order vaccinations for students who are eligible for vaccination.

The South Carolina General Assembly has put a rule in this year's state budget prohibiting counties from requiring masks. It passed in June before the current massive increase in COVID-19 cases began. Governor Henry McMaster agrees that parents should choose whether students wear masks.

Lawmakers also made a budget rule that school districts would start losing significant funding if more than 5% of their students chose to go to nearly every semester.