Task Force Will Determine How to Reopen NC Schools

3 min readMay 1, 2020

Superintendent cautions that change may be needed

Local schools may look very different when they reopen in the fall. NWNC file photo.

ELKIN-What will classes look like when students return to school in August? What kind of activities will students be allowed to do on campus? Those are some of the questions a new North Carolina task force will find answers to over the next two months.

North Carolina Superintendent Mark Johnson announced during the State Board of Education’s meeting Thursday that he had created the Schools Reopening Task Force, citing a need for proactive measures.

“This crisis forced us to be very reactive,” Johnson told board members. “We know we switched to remote learning from zero to 100 percent overnight and that has brought a lot of frustration. What we’re going through is not the new normal. We recognize that this situation is not sustainable.”

But while remote learning isn’t a long-term solution, Johnson stressed that schools can’t just go back to normal in the fall.

“Social distancing is likely going to be unavoidable until we have a vaccine,” Johnson told the board. “And everyone can understand how difficult it will be to socially distance on a school bus or in a classroom or in a hallway. We’re working very closely with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services with the goal of getting as many teachers and students back into schools as possible and determining how we can go forward with extracurricular activities.”

To that end, Johnson said the task force will have to look at ways of improving remote learning and solve one inescapable problem. Since students lost over two months of classroom learning, teachers won’t be able to just jump into the material like normal.

“We are going to look at how we address the very large learning gap that we know is going to face our students when they return in the fall,” Johnson said. “How do we meet standards on their ability level when [students] return and help them on their own pace? We all can agree nothing is a replacement for a student being in a classroom.”

The announcement comes at the same time that COVID-19 cases across Northwest NC are on the rise. As of Friday morning, Wilkes County had 67 confirmed cases, including one death and five hospitalizations. Out of that number, 16 have recovered. There are 34 confirmed cases in Caldwell, 17 in Yadkin, 13 in Surry, nine in Watauga, six in Alleghany, five in Ashe, four in Alexander and none in Avery.

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The task force currently includes 24 people, mainly including members of the General Assembly, school superintendents and liaisons from different parts of state government. The members include: