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DeKalb County Schools announces
in-person return starting March 9
BY SAMMIE PURCELL
Students may begin returning to DeKalb County School District classrooms on
March 9 from a pandemic closure in accordance with guidelines from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
The DeKalb County School District announced its strategy for reopening schools
at a Feb. 23 address it calls the “State of the District,” according to a press release.
Schools will place students into two cohorts based on last name and instruction
al program in order to maintain proper social distancing. Those groups will partic
ipate in hybrid in-person learning based on their choice to attend school in-person
or not.
Students in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and Grades 1, 2, 6 and 9 will begin
in-person learning on March 9- Students in all other grades will begin on March 15.
Before the announcement, members
of the Dunwoody City Council expressed
concerns over how students have been af
fected over the lack of in-person learning.
Anna Hill, a member of the DeKalb
County Board of Education representing
District 1, attended the Feb. 22 City Coun
cil meeting to hear council members’ con
cerns.
Councilmembers Stacey Harris and
Joe Seconder were specifically concerned
in regards to students who have special
needs and may need individualized edu
cation plans.
“I don’t believe that DeKalb County is
serving kids with individual education
plans,” Harris said. “There’s no way they
possibly can when doing it virtually. That
is a huge concern in our community and
all across the county.”
Hill said she sympathized with those
concerns and that some accommodations
for those individualized plans would not be possible in a remote environment.
“I worry a lot about these students. I worry about all of the students,” she said.
“But if you have a working IEP ... and you can’t actually follow what it says, it leaves
a situation of difficulty.”
Council members also asked for more transparency with how federal Coronavi-
rus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funds are being used by the school dis
trict during the pandemic.
“How is the school district spending all those CARES Act funds?” asked Seconder.
“Do they have an open checkbook?”
Mayor Lynn Deutsch echoed the need for more transparency in how CARES Act
funds are being spent.
“I’m really concerned that we’re a year into this, and there are reports that some
buildings aren’t ready,” Deutsch said. “If I were the superintendent, I would like an
audit of how people’s time was spent.”
More information on the reopening plan for schools can be found at delcalb-
schoolsga.org/school-reopening. Residents can watch “The State of the District” ad
dress at dekalbschoolsga.org/communications/dstv.
“How is the
school district
spending all
those CARES
Act funds?
Do they have
an open
checkbook?”
JOE SECONDER
City Councilmember
DUN
