Source: praetorianphoto / Getty
A week after Gov. Roy Cooper strongly encouraged schools to open back up for in-person learning, the Charlotte Mecklenburg School board meets tonight to discuss their plans going forward.
A campaign started by school teacher Rebecca Ivanov and the “CMS advocacy group for the in-person option” got over 2,000 parents and teachers to push for the district to consider offering a traditional class option. Yard signs and billboards have gone up all around the Charlotte metro area with the message that “Schools are safe and essential #InPersonOption #OpenCMS”
Ivanov hopes the Board hears the group’s call for opening back up and takes action to do so safely. She also knows as an educator and parent of a high school student that nobody’s situation will be universal, and thus why Ivanov is wanting parents to have the option.
“As an educator, I’m totally okay with the fact that there needs to be a virtual option,” Ivanov said on WBT’s Bo Thompson Morning Show Tuesday.
“Because if a student, for example, is asthmatic, or like you said is going home to a high risk parent and the family makes the decision. If there’s not an avenue through the school, CMS will continue to lose more enrollment.
“So, even as an educator, I’m totally okay with choice, but the whole purpose of choice is the students that need to be in the classroom. The students that it does not work for virtually. We’re fighting for the 10,000 kids that have dropped off.”
This directly falls in-line with Cooper’s assessment of the current situation, and one backed by North Carolina Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen.
“Now is time to get our children back in the classroom,” Cooper said Feb. 2. “Students who are ready to return to the classrooms should have that chance.”
He went on to say, “It’s important schools follow the safety protocols laid out by North Carolina health officials. That guidance reinforces in-person learning while maintaining strong public health measures. Teachers who are at risk should be providing that remote instruction. But, students who are ready to return to the classrooms should have that chance.”
North Carolina’s new guidance on reopening schools comes days after doctors from the CDC published a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association about safely having students return to the classroom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Many believe that CMS will give the go-ahead for an in-person instruction option tonight.
Listen to the entire interview with Rebecca Ivanov on The Bo Thompson Morning Show below.
