A select group of students in Monongalia County got to do something Monday that hasn’t happened here in six months.
They got to go school – really – for actual, in-person instruction with their teachers.
With the county continuing to glow red on the state’s coronavirus map, the 75 students still reported to their actual buildings, Tiffany Barnett said, because, well, they needed to.
Remote education required by the pandemic hasn’t been very effective for the above so far, said Barnett, who directs student services for Mon County Schools.
The students who got the tap on the shoulder, she said, are among the most cognitively and physically challenged in the county, she said.
Autism may be intruding on remote learning, the director explained.
Or, she added, it may be a matter of a student with severe physical impairments who is simply unable to logistically interact within the tech-parameters of a school – one existing for now within the confines of a computer monitor or keyboard.
The door was left ajar thanks to a provision in West Virginia’s education re-entry plan, written by state Schools Superintendent Clayton Burch at the direction of Gov. Jim Justice.
Barnett and her fellow administrators met late last week for a case-by-case consideration.
It wasn’t a matter of a family simply preferring to contradict the coronavirus, Barnett said.
“We want to make sure our parents really understand that,” she said.
“It’s whether or not the student can actually engage with the technology.”
And, she said, whether the child is showing a significant intellectual disability requiring direct, one-on-one attention from his teacher.
Students graded under Alternate Academic Achievement Standards, sanctioned by the National Center for Educational Outcomes, were also considered.
Monday’s return to class for the group came on the same day Gov. Jim Justice lamented Mon’s showing – “Off-the-chart red” – during his COVID-19 briefing with reporters.
While the governor was set to possibly reconsider the statewide metrics, the 75 students here, Deputy Schools Superintendent Donna Talerico said, will keep going to school – “As long as it’s considered safe to do so.”
Said students, she reported, are spread out over 17 of Mon’s 18 schools.
Numbers that low, she said, are why the county health department OK’d the plan.
Such a ratio, she said, might mean three students to a classroom, if that.
Plus, she said, the schools have also been supplied with above-and-beyond personal protective gear, such as face guards for students unable to wear masks, due to their impairments.
And everyone involved, she said, was cloaked in feel-good emotion.
“The students really needed their teachers,” she said. “And the teachers really missed their students.”
Crystal Nantz, the principal of Mountaineer Middle School agreed.
Because of confidentiality concerns, she didn’t say how many students reported Monday morning.
The principal, though, did note soaring spirits in the school high atop Price Street in Morgantown.
“Lots of happy people in the building today,” she said.
