The Williamson County School (WCS) Board held a Work Session Thursday evening, in which many board members met in person. Superintendent Jason Golden joined the meeting virtually via Zoom due to the need to quarantine.
“I am participating in the quarantine process….and we have some empathy for families going through this as well,” Golden said at the beginning of the meeting.
Golden is working from home due to contact with a family member with COVID-19. His test results have come back positive and he will continue to work remotely the next few days while following health department protocols, said WCS in a statement.
Golden announced the school district will announce Friday afternoon/evening if students in grades 3 through 12 will resume classes on campus beginning August 24th or continue with remote learning. The Health & Safety Team met with local health officials Thursday and the Leadership Team met Friday morning to debrief.
The WCS school year began August 7 under the district’s “Medium Community Spread” protocol, which allows for early childhood, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first and second grades, along with the ALC, to receive on-campus instruction. Grades 3-12 receive remote instruction. In addition, some special education students may also receive services on campus. Every two weeks, the district will evaluate to see if adjustments can be made to allow for additional students and teachers to return to campus. With one week of school now complete, WCS has one more week in the current “Medium Community Spread” protocol. Today’s decision will determine what happens beginning August 24, giving families ten days to plan.
According to the WCS’ Reopening Framework, if there is low community spread of COVID-19, all students can return to on-campus learning. Low community spread is defined as less than 0.5% of positive COVID active cases. As of the writing of this article, Williamson County has 0.52% active cases.
“Our goal is to sustainably be back on campus and that’s what we’re evaluating. We made the commitment that we would give folks a weeks notice in those two week windows,” said Superintendent Golden.
