School districts discuss student safety plan after holiday season

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Two more school districts in our area release details on learning models offered to students after Christmas break.

More than 3,300 students are enrolled in the Columbus Municipal School District.

Superintendent Dr. Cherie Labat says hybrid and virtual learning will be offered for the spring semester.

” We take the data and we take the information. We evaluate on a school by school basis, how many teachers we have available, and how many students will be coming to school to make a decision,” said Labat.

Dr. Labat says there are no reported cases of the virus on school grounds right now.

” We’ve always had mandatory mask mandate, we follow social distancing. We have desk shields, we have a no contact policy, and we don’t allow any outside employees to enter the district,” said Labat.

At Heritage Academy, Headmaster Dr. Greg Carlyle says the school will follow a similar model.

” For our students coming back after Christmas,we’re going to meet in person. We do, at the high school, have a limited ability for virtual classes,” said Dr. Carlyle.

250 students are on campus, eight of those students are learning virtually.

Carlyle says with smaller class sizes, it’s easier to maintain a social distance.

” We are spraying on all of our student surfaces between every class. We’re finding those things are helping and we’ll continue with that,”said Carlyle.

Administrators say they’re ready to switch to a fully virtual platform if needed.

” Our ninth and twelfth grade students were trained on and that was Canvas. Back in March, we were able to walk that down the seventh and eight grade and get them trained and we’ve actually moved it back to third grade,” said Carlyle.

” When we say we’re going virtual, we will truly be virtual.All of our students have a Hewlett-Packard in their hand and a device. All of our teachers have a device. We will be able to continue learning in case we are in a situation that we have to go virtual by schools. Our teachers are looking at data and looking are learning the loss that we’re doing the enrichment or remediation that we need to do,” said Labat.

Both schools will release updated information as it becomes available.