Here’s the plan for Richmond County’s 2 days of virtual learning

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Richmond County education officials announced all schools will go virtual Tuesday and Wednesday after the Labor Day holiday, citing rising COVID cases as the reason.

The Belair K-8 School already transitioned to a learn from home format this past Friday.

In the Richmond County School System, almost 200 students and more than 50 teachers have tested positive for COVID. The district says they’re going virtual for these two days next week to deep clean schools, but a lot of parents are lighting up social media about this.

“It’s a real big concern to me,” said Christina Cody.

Cody has two kids in the Richmond County School System and the number of COVID cases worries her.

“I feel like they should take more precaution and take the seriousness of this virus into effect,” she said.

The Richmond County School System says next Tuesday and Wednesday, schools are going virtual so campuses can be deep-cleaned. This will all happen right after a three-day holiday weekend, which has a lot of parents, confused.

Ashley says, “But they’re safe to go the rest of the week? Y’all make no sense.”

Shemeka says ‘Why the 7th and 8th, why not tomorrow?’

We asked the school district for answers.

“The Labor Day holiday provided a natural opportunity for us to consider taking this learn at-home transition,” said Lynthia Ross, district spokeswoman.

The district plans to schedule more virtual learning breaks throughout the year. They say they’re short-staffed with custodians, making it tough to deep clean every day. We asked why they’re taking two days following a three-day holiday weekend and they say some buildings are bigger and it takes more time to deep clean those schools.

“Let’s make sure we’re supplied up, geared up, cleaned up and we can get back in the saddle for in-person instruction, full-speed ahead on Thursday,” said Ross.

Since they’re citing these COVID numbers as the reason, we asked the district why they’re waiting until next week to do this instead of going virtual now. They told us they want to give families enough time to plan for it.

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