MACON, Ga. — School districts are trying to get ahead of the next academic calendar by finalizing a schedule early while also dealing with daily decision-making through the pandemic.
In Bibb County, Superintendent Curtis Jones is considering two options for the upcoming years.
"We've asked the community to look at two different options. One is to allow students to come back August 1 and another one lets them come back the middle of August," he said.
The one with a longer summer gives teachers more time to pre-plan.
"It'll be a shorter Thanksgiving break, shorter fall break, as well as a shorter winter break. The other option though was for students really...to start school around the the first of August, so pre-planning would happen in July. That allows us now to have a full Thanksgiving break, a full fall break, a full winter break as well as still getting school out before Memorial Day," Jones said.
The calendar start dates also depends on the status of COVID-19 at the time. The district's latest update reported 38 cases system-wide.
"Our nurses are now turning in a weekly report to their higher ups so that they're able to put together a school level report for who in the school has been affected, who's quarantining, etc. We've now figured out how we can monitor that information and not wait for the state report," Jones said.
After students returned back in-person on November 9, Southwest High and Southfield Elementary had to switch back to virtual for about two weeks because of COVID-19.
Jones says closing campuses mostly has to do with staffing needs.
"Are the buses going to be able to run? Can we operate the cafeteria? Do we have the teachers in place? And we're asking every principal: 'How's the staff feeling? What does this look like,' and then we're able to at the district level, compare one school to another and then make a judgment call," said Jones. "At the end of the day it's all about making sound judgmental calls and trying to be consistent and reasonable with what we do."
Southwest High School students returned to campus on November 30. Southfield Elementary students return to campus on December 7.
The district releases its latest COVID-19 case and quarantine reports every Friday. The last report was the Friday before Thanksgiving.
Jones says they're looking through the feedback from the survey on the calendar options and will share that information once they've come to a decision.
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