ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, Va. — Thursday, Isle of Wight County Schools announced the board was considering switching some students back to five-day-per-week in-person learning.
It's not a "done deal" yet, but a spokesperson for IWCS said in-person learning would be more of an option in February, once elementary school tables are replaced with individual desks, and many of the teachers who registered for the COVID-19 vaccine got their shots.
Almost 500 school employees signed up to be vaccinated in Phase 1b, and IWCS said many of them have already been given the first dose.
The school division is expected to make an announcement about their upcoming plans on Feb. 8.
If the school board decides to make the switch, pre-K through 5th grade students could be back in physical classrooms, five days a week, starting Feb. 16. That's a Tuesday.
"Since school opened on September 8, there have been NO cases of student to student spread, student to teacher spread, or teacher to student spread," the school system wrote in a release. "However, if we do have issues with rising numbers of cases or quarantines, the Superintendent, Dr. Jim Thornton, can close a classroom, a school, or even the entire division and return students to temporarily remote or hybrid learning if necessary."
The release said the school system would watch the area's COVID-19 trends before making the decision, and would continue to track local cases to make decisions about other grade levels.