Sumter School District asks for feedback on reopening schools

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No final decisions have been made yet on how public school will look in the fall on the state or local level, and Sumter School District is asking for stakeholder feedback at this time.

The district posted various surveys online on its website Friday to get just that from various groups, and a spokeswoman also spoke to The Sumter Item.

The coronavirus has presented numerous challenges for all schools across the U.S., but the local district is committed to providing a safe learning environment for students and employees, said Shelly Galloway, the district's executive director of communications and community engagement.

To that end, the district has created a schools reopening taskforce, or team, and surveys are now being conducted of four local stakeholder groups: students, parents, employees and community members.

The online survey takes just a few minutes to complete, and the district is looking for stakeholders to submit responses by Wednesday at noon. The district also emailed survey links to employees, students and parents for whom it had email addresses. All survey responses are anonymous.

The district taskforce is discussing various topics of concern, she said, including accessible learning for all students; bus and car transportation and schedules; increased cleaning protocols and safety equipment; modified classroom setups to maximize social distancing; and crowd/traffic flow in multi-use areas, such as cafeterias, hallways and libraries.

The district will continue to monitor current and available data on COVID-19, Galloway said, and health and safety guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The surveys will provide stakeholders' concerns and priorities regarding return possibilities to teaching and learning.

"We're exploring all possible options right now," Galloway said, "and we want to be able to get stakeholder feedback as we work to create our plan."

All the surveys are accessible from the school district's homepage, www.sumterschools.net, and also on the district's social media pages, she added.

STAKEHOLDER FEEDBACK SURVEYS:

Online surveys for various stakeholder groups can be found at www.sumterschools.net and the district's social media pages.