On January 28, Isle of Wight County Schools Superintendent Jim Thornton announced the possibility of returning some students on the In-Person Continuum to a full, five-day weekly schedule beginning February 16. Since the announcement, the division has been monitoring data for positive cases and quarantines and adjusting furniture in classrooms to assist with physical distancing.
At this time, Isle of Wight County Schools WILL return PreKindergarten through 5th grade students on the In-Person Continuum model to 5-days of in-person instruction beginning Tuesday, February 16. All schools and offices will be closed Monday, February 15, for the Presidents' Day holiday.
The In-Person Continuum model allows for students to move between learning remotely, learning on a hybrid model, or learning in person 5 days a week, based on data related to COVID-19. Should we start seeing numbers of cases or quarantines increasing, the Superintendent can close a classroom, a school, or even the entire division and quickly return students to temporarily remote or hybrid learning if necessary.
The mitigation strategies in place at all of our schools are working and preventing transmission of the virus. Since school opened on September 8, there have been NO cases of student to student spread, student to teacher spread, or teacher to student spread.
Updated bus schedules for elementary schools will be posted no later than Friday on the division's website at: https://www.iwcs.k12.va.us/
We will continue to monitor data for a potential return of additional grade levels to five days a week in person.
This decision does not impact students on the Virtual Learning Model for the second semester.