During Wednesday’s Prince William County School Board meeting, the decision to return to in-person instruction next week for hybrid students was approved by a majority vote. Under the plan adopted at the meeting, fourth-, fifth-, sixth-, and ninth-graders will return to class two days a week beginning February 25 and 26. All remaining grades will return beginning March 2 and March 3. This was done at the urging of Chair Babur Lateef, who has aggressively pushed for an in-return process. Although the county remains one of the higher risk areas for the coronavirus, the numbers have decreased over the past few days, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

On Thursday the Prince William Education Association issued the following statement in response to the school board’s decision. “It is the strong belief of the Prince William Education Board of Directors that certain members of the Prince William County School Board have repeatedly voted in defiance of science, safety, and common sense. Pandering to vocal minorities and boardroom theatrics are no substitute for leadership in the midst of a pandemic.”

“The PWCS superintendent has twice provided the PWCS School Board with reasonable timelines for a safe return to in-person learning, and twice the School Board has defined their own statement to support the authority of the superintendent to guide the division’s actions. Dr. Walts’ plans were guided by the myriad resources of the PWCS division and CDC guidance; whereas, the vote taken by the PWCS School Board appears to only be guided by the voices of 30% of parents who have chosen to send their students prematurely into the schools.”

“At the request of the PWCS School Board, Dr. Walts collected the voices of school administrators regarding the readiness of the schools to open in-person instruction and the resounding chorus was clear – ‘We need more time to prepare.'”

“The infrastructure and staffing requirements for the fraction of students whose parents have chosen to risk in-person learning is far from secure. As an organization of thousands of front-line workers, the PWEA has heard the realities ‘on the ground’ and in real time – and they are not consistent with the fantasy projected by certain members of the PWCS School Board. There continues to be a dearth of substitutes for support staff, classroom instructors, and classified employees.”

“The Prince William Education Association seeks the school board’s implementation of Superintendent Walts’ proposed plan dated February 17, 2021, which best supports the health, safety and education of PWCS students and employees.”

Many administrators and staff attempted to speak on the importance of focusing on safety first and insuring all protocols were in place. Their opportunities were limited, as the board resumed its pre-pandemic starting time of a closed session at 6:00 pm and the public meeting starting at 7:00 pm. Also, the initial citizen comment time was limited to 30 minutes.

There are still issues of how the schools will bring in substitutes, as well as how they will handle both special education and language learning environments. However, it appears that those issues will be looked upon as students, teachers and staff re-enter the classrooms.