SOCSD announces August 24 start date
The Starkville-oktibbeha Consolidated School District has once again pushed its start date back.
On Friday, the district announced that its start date for students would be pushed back to Aug. 24 from the past date of Aug. 10. Teachers will return to work on Aug. 17, pushed back from the original date of Aug. 4
In a letter to SOCSD Families, Superintendent Eddie Peasant said the change was primarily due to the district having to adjust to a larger than expected number of families choosing the virtual option. The district is offering virtual learning as one of three options for its students in the coming school year. The other two options are traditional and hybrid learning.
He said the district was originally prepared to accommodate up to 25 percent of students through virtual learning. However, with the re
cent increase in COVID-19 cases, approximately 3,000 students, or at least 40 percent of the district will be using the virtual option, meaning that schools will need additional time to prepare for the increase.
The district will use the additional time to train a core group of teachers to build instructional learning models to share with other educators in the district.
“The reality is our teachers are reluctantly returning to classrooms, and our parents are reluctantly sending their children into our classrooms as positivity rates for Covid-19 continue to climb in our state and in our community,” read a passage from the letter. “This is a difficult time for all of us, and it will only become more difficult if we fail our teachers, staff, students and families with a premature return to the classroom.”
Peasant also said that the district had asked for a waiver to reduce the 180-day school year requirement. However, the Mississippi Department of Education is not currently granting such waivers.
If the district does not receive a waiver, the school year will extend into June.
Open houses at elementary schools and planned schedule distributions at the Partnership Middle School, Armstrong Junior High and Starkville High School will be pushed back two weeks.