Citing the county’s rising COVID-19 seven-day average case incidence rate, which is now above 15.0, the Board of Education of Anne Arundel County tonight voted to delay full implementation of Arundel County Public Schools’ hybrid reopening plan until the start of the second semester.
The hybrid reopening plan adopted by the Board in October called for students in ECI and Pre-K through second grade whose families had so chosen to begin hybrid classes on November 16 and attend on either Monday/Tuesday or Thursday/Friday and working virtually on other days. All students and teachers would have worked virtually on Wednesdays to allow for a thorough cleaning of school buildings.
Students in grades 3 through 5 whose families had so chosen would have returned in a hybrid format on November 30, operating under the same guidelines as students in ECI and prekindergarten through second grade.
No firm date had been set for the return of middle school and high school students.
The implementation of the hybrid model in the second semester will continue to be contingent on the meeting of health and safety metrics as established by the Anne Arundel County Department of Health.
In a separate vote, the Board also adopted a motion that supports Superintendent George Arlotto’s continuation of the aggressive return to school buildings of small groups of identified priority students, such as English Language Learners, students with special needs, students in the Centers of Applied Technology, and others who are struggling in the virtual format for direct instruction through the remainder of the first semester, pending that health and safety metrics as established by the Anne Arundel County Department of Health support such a return.
