Governor Justice announces return to in-person school by Jan. 19
Mineral Daily News-Tribune
CHARLESTON - West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice made the surprise announcement at his daily virtual press briefing Wednesday that beginning on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021, all West Virginia elementary and middle schools will reopen to in-person learning five days each week.
All high schools will also return to in-person instruction five days each week, as long as their county is not Red in the DHHR County Alert System map.
“We have got to get our kids back in school,” Gov. Justice said. “During 2020 we learned that COVID-19 transmission rates in our schools during the first semester was 0.02 percent among students and 0.3 percent among staff. Our schools are safe when guidelines are followed.
Listen • 15:32
On this
West Virginia Morning, we hear from West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Clayton Burch who shares his goals for spring 2021, and we learn about a unique toy store in Princeton that sells 1980s toys.
It’s been a tough year for K-12 education in West Virginia. From making sure kids were fed in the spring and summer, to figuring out how to open safely in the fall, to balancing new and old learning models, and finding solutions to broadband challenges. As we take a break and enter the holidays, state education leaders are now looking ahead to the spring and a new year. Education reporter Liz McCormick spoke with Superintendent Burch last week over Microsoft Teams to see what sort of ideas and initiatives he’s planning to tackle in 2021.
/
West Virginia Superintendent Clayton Burch speaking to media in a virtual press briefing on Sept. 25, 2020.
It’s been a tough year for K-12 education in West Virginia. From making sure students were fed in the spring and summer, to figuring out how to open safely in the fall, to balancing new and old learning models, and to finding solutions to broadband challenges.
As students, parents and school personnel take a break and enter the holidays, state education leaders are now looking ahead to the spring and a new year.
West Virginia Superintendent of Schools Clayton Burch has some goals in mind he wants to tackle when students and staff return in January. Two things in particular: recovery and the achievement gap.
West Virginia’s K-12 and higher education teachers and staff may soon be the next group of people to receive a coronavirus vaccine in the state.
During the West Virginia Board of Education’s final monthly meeting of 2020, Superintendent of Schools Clayton Burch spoke to members about teachers receiving a coronavirus vaccine.
Burch said he’d been in many ongoing conversations with the governor’s coronavirus vaccine task force.
“They ve asked for a lot of information,” Burch said. “Everything from our teaching staff that is 65 and older. And then 50 and older. Health conditions. We re going to do a superintendent’s call here very, very soon, before the holiday.”
Published December 17, 2020 at 9:58 AM EST Listen • 15:36
On this
West Virginia Morning, we hear about a national non-profit that tries to bring people of differing political views together. Also, in this show, we hear from West Virginia’s Superintendent of Schools Clayton Burch who speaks to goals for the spring, an update on the prison sentence for former West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Allen Loughry, and we hear about a new water utility serving western Fayette County.
West Virginia’s K-12 and higher education teachers and staff may soon be the next group of people to receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine in the state. Liz McCormick has more.