(Enid, OK) Enid Public Schools in-person classes will return next semester after almost two months of distance learning after the rise of COVID-19 cases in Garfield County forced classes to move out of the classroom.
The EPS Board of Education passed a revision at a meeting on Monday night to change the district’s COVID-19 re-entry plan for next semester. The revisions will change how administrators determine whether to close schools once classes resume on Jan. 5th, 2021.
Masks and social distancing, alongside quarantine and isolation protocol, will remain the same in the new plan, while still following guidelines from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Department.
Beginning today, all winter sports like wrestling, swimming and basketball, will be allowed to meet, practice and compete. Starting Jan. 5th (the first day of the spring semester), all EPS athletics and activities from 6-12 grade can meet, practice and compete.
Decisions on school closures & moves to virtual/distance learning will be made on a site-by-site basis, instead of following the state Department of Education’s recommendation of the weekly state health reports on community spread in Oklahoma counties. A school will close depending on if they have faculty and staff present to run the school effectively or if under 30% of a school’s students, faculty and staff are quarantined/isolated due to COVID-19.
If the new standards are not met, then the district will consider immediately shutting down in-person and returning to virtual/distance learning.
Virtual/distance learning will still be an option for students next semester. However, several teachers and parents at the meeting on Monday said virtual learning for all students isn’t sustainable beyond two weeks a school would be shut down.
Meals, for students in virtual/distance learning, are now being provided from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the EPS administrative services building, Glenwood, Coolidge, Garfield, Taft elementary schools and Waller Middle School.
