The Clayton County Board of Education finished up the last board meeting of the fiscal year by voting and discussing various topics concerning the school district.
The near 3 hour meeting started off with acknowledgements for student and staff accomplishments and then transitioned to talking about more specific matters. Some of those matters were about reopening schools and Covid testing for students.
“All staff and students will return to daily in person instruction unless a student has been approved for the virtual learning academy,” said Assistant Superintendent Ebony Lee.
A question was brought up during the meeting about whether there should be a consideration for some Clayton County students to start the year off doing a hybrid of both virtual and in-person classes. Especially for middle and high-school students because of concerns about student movement (students traveling from one part of the school to the other) and because some students have not been in the schools that they will now be attending.
Deputy Superintendent, Dr. Ralph Simpson, mentioned that there will be conversations with principals about this topic and how to go forth from there. To this point, Simpson mentioned that there was a plan for schools to have a Standard Operating Procedure that will go through the day in the life of a student (in their respective schools).
The procedure should help students with their transition to in person learning this school year.
Simpson also mentioned that Covid testing will be available in the district but not at every site, so students and staff will have to go to specific locations for Covid testing. Simpson encouraged everyone to use the Covid testing sites that currently exist.
Another topic broached by the Board was making Juneteenth a district holiday. “We need to recognize it as a holiday,” said Board Chair Jessie Goree.
The addition of Juneteenth to the 2021-2022 calendar (which was already approved) will most likely be revisited in the future. If Juneteenth was added as a district holiday, it seems that it would be a paid holiday.
“I don’t mind it being a paid holiday,” said Goree. The Board also voted unanimously on the Superintendent’s Recommendation of Dr. Wanda Greenwood for the assistant principal position at Suder Elementary School.