MACON, Ga. — It's the day before Bibb students head back to school remotely, and Superintendent Curtis Jones stands by his decision to push the start date back.
"We could've started school August 10...but teachers were uncomfortable, and I don't think we would've been as prepared as we are now," he said.
Jones spent the summer making sure the district could handle remote learning better in the fall.
"We've now issued over 13,000 devices to our students, either iPads or laptops, and we still have more of them coming as well so we can upgrade," Jones said.
One of Jones' priorities was finding the students they lost track of during the spring with the help of a federal program.
"One of the sub-departments in that is for homeless students and migrant students as well, and they have been reaching out to those students to make sure that they had a device, and that they have access to the internet, and that we knew where they were," Jones said.
He says those students now have tutors to assist them. The district also provided better individualized learning programs for special education students who had trouble working remotely.
"Special education teachers looked at their individual education plans, we came to realize that some of that just can't be done very well virtually, and they need to have one-on-one instruction. So, that's going to become what I'm going to call phase 1 of getting students back into school," Jones said.
"When do you think you all will feel safe to return back to in-person instruction," 13WMAZ asked Jones.
"That's an excellent question and I'll be honest, if anything is on my mind everyday, it's that. We still meet weekly with the North (Central) Health District to see what the conditions are specifically in Bibb and I'm also still looking at the positivity rate. Depending on how our community does, if those numbers stay down and surrounding counties are able to give us more lessons learned, then I'm hopeful," Jones said.
Jones aims to start phasing their students with disabilities back in-person in October.
He says one reason they lost track of students was having too many different communication tools.
They've now launched their official channel called "Remind" to keep communication between parents, students and teachers in one place.
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