Parents in Williamson County Schools are having mixed reactions to the district's reopening plan, which was released July 9.
The plan consists of two options: on-campus classes starting on the first day of school Aug. 7 or online classes. The on-campus option would include a mask requirement and social distancing.
While many parents approve of the plan, others have concerns about issues such as the requirement to wear masks and how buses will operate under health protocols.
Stay-at-home mom Angela Hart of Nolensville said she believes the plan will never please everyone.
"WCS isn’t going to come up with a plan that makes even half of the community happy. Even me," she said.
But Hart said some complaints are valid and need further exploration. She said if the district implements remote learning when the county hits medium or high community spread, parents will struggle.
The district plans to consider the rate of coronavirus spread when determining whether schools operate on campus. The rate is found by taking the number of active cases divided by the entire Williamson County population of 238,412 residents.
If the rate rises to 0.5% or more, students will start to move to remote learning.
"Fifteen-plus years in corporate America didn’t prepare me for what was last spring. I need my kids taught by real teachers, in a real school, with their peers," Hart said.
The WCS Facebook page has drawn hundreds of comments from parents about the plan.
"To be safe, masks require following very specific hygiene procedures that small children are incapable of," Franklin dad Andrew Lynch said.
"This is risking the health of our children. Please rethink this."
Many parents have praised the plan.
"Coming up with this plan has obviously taken a very long time and a lot of effort," mom Kristy Jansen Branson said.
"I am grateful to every single person that has taken so much of their time in planning these options. Thank you from all the parents and students for everything you do for our kids."
A group, Recall Williamson, formed on Facebook just a few hours before the district unveiled its WCS Reopening Framework.
The group calls for the district to rethink the mask requirement and demanded that the Williamson County Board of Education gather to vote on the plan.
"We believe that mandating masks to be worn by children on a daily basis is unhealthy and counterproductive to those stated goals. We invite board members of Williamson County Schools to reconsider this framework and remove the mask mandate," the page states.
After initially scheduling a non-voting work session, the WCBOE announced on Friday a special called meeting to vote on the plan at 6 p.m. on Monday.
According to the agenda, the board will consider endorsing the reopening plan, with the caveat that WCS Superintendent Jason Golden has the option to revise it as necessary.
WCBOE member Jay Galbreath, 6th District, held a Facebook Live question and answer session on the Recall Williamson page just hours after the plan was released by the district on Thursday evening.
Galbreath said he has received hundreds of emails over the past six days from concerned parents.
He also expressed concern over the lack of detailed guidelines for remote learning and TNReady testing next school year.
Uncertainty, inconsistency barriers to planning
WCS Safety Director Mike Fletcher, who is a part of the district COVID-19 response team involved in devising the reopening plan, explained during a June 11 school board work session that inconsistency in health protocols has been frustrating.
"I can't begin to tell you the amount of frustration we've felt trying to look through and decipher the guidance that has come out from many organizations and try to make action plans," he said.
Fletcher was instrumental in leading the district in devising a metric to determine how the rate of spread of the coronavirus will affect school operations.
The rate of spread of COVID-19 in Williamson County is 0.41%, as of July 10, according to state health department data compiled by county officials. If the county reaches 0.5%-1% rate of spread, WCS will begin implementing partial remote schooling. If the county reaches 1% or above, remote school will be implemented fully districtwide.
More: Williamson school district defines metric for determining whether school's in or out
More: Williamson schools survey shows parents want their children back in school
Branson calls it an "impossible" situation and believes the district has met the challenge head-on.
"I think it’s clear that the district has really tried to do what’s best to meet the needs of every child and family situation, as much as possible," Branson said.
"I am thankful for the option of the expanded online programming in addition to the in-school option. This is a horrendous situation and there are no good answers, but I feel like the leaders of WCS have done their absolute best to make an impossible situation as good as can possibly be."
Kerri Bartlett covers issues affecting children, families, education and government in Williamson County. She can be contacted at kbartlett@gannett.com, 615-308-8324 or @keb1414 on Twitter.
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