If you don’t have children in Henry County’s public schools, you might be wondering why your haven’t seen school buses along the roads or students gathering in front of the schools since the end of Christmas break.

After the Henry County Board of Education voted a month ago to delay the start of the second semester to January 11,  the decision was made in recent days to start the semester by moving all students to a remote learning environment on that date. Officials anticipate a January 25 return to optional on-campus learning.

The plan for returning to campus adopted by the board last August and updated two months later included this contingency. Board members at that time authorized superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis to work with Georgia Department of Public Health District 4 officials, Piedmont Henry Hospital executives, and county emergency management agency officials to shift school and district operations to remote, as necessary, to protect against the negative impacts of COVID-19 conditions in Henry County.  

“Through deep discussions and collaboration with our valuable medical and government agency partners, it was abundantly clear that our county’s COVID-19 numbers were dramatically trending in the wrong direction,” said Davis.  “Our many partners are feeling the strain in their respective fields with overwhelming numbers of positive COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and quarantining taking place. These all have implications on the safety and health of our county including our school district of 43,000 students, 6,000 employees, and their families.”

District officials are optimistic with this latest transition that lessons learned from a similar start to the school year back in August will provide more familiarity for everyone and quicker adaptation to the various components required for successful operations at schools and across the district.

“Families can be assured that school meals will still be provided, all of our students have a device for learning at home and access to support as needed, and our teachers and school personnel have even greater familiarity with providing effective remote instruction to all students,” said Davis. “We all have the key role of providing a high-level education for all students, but we also have a role in supporting our community efforts to keep everyone healthy and safe.  While our schools provided regular and heightened mitigation protocols, we cannot control what those beyond our school influence do to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. And at this point, our community spread is troubling and directly impacts the safety of our operations.”

The school nutrition department will be providing meals during remote learning. Nutrition leaders want to remind all families that school meals are available free of charge through the remainder of the semester, and all distribution efforts will shift to curbside pick-up through remote operations.

The district’s website (henry.k12.ga.us) will continue to provide the most current information should any further changes become necessary.

In other school board business, Holly Cobb was named chair for 2021 at the board’s Jan. 6 organizational meeting, shorty after she was sworn in for a second term. Pam Nutt was sworn in for her seventh term, having served 24 years on the board, and new member Makenzie McDaniel also took the oath of office.

Cobb succeeds previous board chair Josh Hinton, who was defeated by McDaniel in last year’s election. She was nominated for the chair by Nutt, while McDaniel nominated Annette Edwards.

Cobb received three votes: Nutt’s, Sophe Pope’s, and her own. Pope then nominated Edwards for vice chair, and she was unanimously confirmed.