Sumter School District will release update next week

2-week review meeting with state Department of Education scheduled

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A meeting between Sumter School District and the state Department of Education will occur next week, and then the district will communicate any possible changes to its current fully virtual instructional model.

Shelly Galloway, the district's executive director of communication and community engagement, and Ryan Brown, chief communications officer with the state department, both spoke Friday.

Sumter School District's virtual reopening plan approved last month by the state agency included the contingency that both entities reevaluate every two weeks whether an in-person option at schools is safe for children and adults. After starting fully virtual on Aug. 28, Friday was the initial two-week mark on the calendar, but a meeting wasn't able to be coordinated this week, Brown said.

"Our meeting with them is next week," Brown said Friday afternoon. "Today is the two-week period from when they first started school, but we couldn't get the meeting schedule to be lined up perfectly on the two-week mark, so it will be a few days afterwards. There should be an update next week coming from our discussion with them."

Galloway said the district's Reopening of Schools Taskforce met Friday to review data and will continue to work closely with the state department to determine when it is appropriate to begin a transition phase to hybrid learning.

"We are analyzing our data in conjunction with the State Department of Education," she said, "and that meeting will take place early next week."

Data used in its re-evaluation process includes COVID-19 data from S.C. DHEC, district staffing numbers and logistics, she said.

When a determination has been made to move to a hybrid/blended model, parents will be given two weeks' notice before that model would begin, she said.

That would put the earliest that a hybrid could begin in the district late September or early October.

SCHOOL BOARD MEETING MONDAY VIRTUALLY

In related matters, the district's Board of Trustees has its regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Monday night.

A district staff member placed the agenda online this past week for the media and general public.

Superintendent Penelope Martin-Knox's report highlights the agenda and will include district goals and objectives for the current school year as well as a human resources division presentation and an operations division presentation.

Monday's meeting will begin at 6 p.m. and will be virtual.

Since its monthly board meeting on April 6, the district has kept all meetings closed in person to the public. All people wishing to attend the meeting virtually can do so via YouTube Sumter School District Board Meeting and the district's Facebook page, @SumterSCSchools.