MASON COUNTY, W.Va. — The final weeks of what has been a very unusual school year in West Virginia are winding down in the 55 counties with remote learning, revisions to graduation plans and many questions about what the 2020-2021 school year could look like.
In Mason County, the ending date for students for this school year will be June 5, exactly 12 weeks after the last time all students were in classrooms prior to school closures in the coronavirus pandemic.
Returning students were scheduled to start the new school year in classrooms on Aug. 20.
However, “It’s really going to depend on how things go here in West Virginia and Mason County and the United States,” said Jack Cullen, superintendent of schools in Mason County.
“With things being opened up again and people returning to work and certain businesses starting up, you know there’s going to be a second wave of the epidemic.”
This week, custodians have been regularly cleaning and disinfecting school buildings in Mason County as teachers who felt safe doing so returned to classrooms on rotating schedules to begin prepping their classrooms for the summer months.
Teachers and staff members were doing the same in other parts of West Virginia including Raleigh County and Mason County.
Schedules varied by county.
In all cases, school workers were instructed to follow recommendations for physical distancing and sanitization from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Health and Human Resources.
In Mason County, screenings with temperature checks were happening at school doors.
The state Department of Education previously released guidelines for the retrieval of student belongings once public buildings were cleared to reopen again.
Governor Jim Justice announced the closures of West Virginia’s schools on March 13 and they took effect the following week.
“I’ve been amazed with our staff,” Cullen said of the abrupt transition to remote learning.
Online lessons have been complicated in Mason County by connectivity issues.
In a March survey, Cullen said 38 percent of students reported not having access to reliable internet service.
Some parts of Mason County have no internet service at all while cell phone service is also limited or nonexistent elsewhere.
“That’s something we’ve got to work on here in West Virginia and in Mason County,” he said.
Students who could not participate in online lessons since schools closed on March 13 were provided paper packets.
For the Class of 2020, the following tentative dates were scheduled for in-person graduation ceremonies in Mason County:
June 26 – Point Pleasant Junior Senior High, 7:30 p.m.
June 27 – Hannan Junior Senior High, 11 a.m.
June 27 – Wahama Junior Senior High, 7 p.m.
Alternative dates were also selected for the end of July and early August if guidelines still limited crowds in June.
Virtual graduations will be held in Mason County if those dates in July or August are not possible.
Staff members were due back to begin the new school year on Aug. 17.
Before that, Cullen said changes to the school day would have to be considered.
The possibilities included “Do you we have to rotate students in? Will there be meals in a cafeteria like we’ve always had or will there be meals in a classroom? Recess time, will we have to divide up those recess times and give the classes different areas to go to?”
No one could predict, he said, what the next school year may look like.
In the uncertainty, though, Cullen said the focus of Mason County’s educators remained the same.
“When you say, ‘Who do you work for?’ We work for the students of Mason County and our staff is just doing an outstanding job.”