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In a Henrico Schools survey earlier this month, a significant majority of respondents in Henrico’s two easternmost magisterial districts and a slight majority in two other districts indicated that they planned to keep their students learning virtually if public school reopened with a four-day in-person schedule.
Meanwhile, a majority of those from the fifth district – Tuckahoe – who responded said they planned to send theirs back to school in such a scenario.
The School Board Oct. 22 voted 4-1 to follow the recommendation of Superintendent Amy Cashwell and its health committee and selected a four-phase, four-day return plan, beginning Nov. 30 and Dec. 7 for elementary school students and early February for middle and high school students. Those who choose to go back will attend class Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays but learn virtually on Wednesdays.
The survey earlier this month was non-binding, but school officials soon will send a binding survey to families, requiring them to decide whether their students will remain virtual or head back.
It’s unknown whether the choices are designed to be permanent for the remainder of the school year or just for the second nine-week grading period – or whether middle school and high school families will be surveyed, since their students don’t have the option to return until the third nine-week grading period begins anyway. Each could impact the number of students who return in person.
HCPS spokesman Andy Jenks told the Citizen Monday that officials are compiling answers to those questions and a number of others and hope to provide them soon.
A number of them could come Tuesday during two virtual information sessions about the back-to-school plan – one for employees at 4 p.m. and another for families at 6:30 p.m.
The school-level data from this month's survey, provided to the Citizen at the publication’s request, shows that one-third or fewer of respondents from 25 of the 71 schools surveyed indicated that they would send their students back in person as part of a four-day plan; all but four of those schools were in the Fairfield or Varina districts in Eastern Henrico.
By contrast, responses from families at 26 other schools suggested that half or more of the students at those locations would return in person in a four-day plan; all but eight of those were Tuckahoe or Three Chopt District schools in the West End.
Families at Tuckahoe Elementary School are most ready for their students to return in person; 79% of them indicated that they’d be back in the four-day plan.
Families at Fairfield Middle School were the least interested in the plan; only 22% indicated that their students would be returning.
Carver Elementary School was split down the middle, with exactly half of the 294 respondents indicating their students would return and half indicating they wouldn’t.
Overall, just 29% of Fairfield respondents and 31% of Varina respondents said their students would come back in person for the four-day plan. In the Tuckahoe District, that number was 55%, while in Three Chopt it was 47% and in Brookland, 44%.
The response rate was highest in Three Chopt, where nearly 76% of families answered the survey. It was lowest in Varina, where only 57% did.
Brookland School Board member Kristi Kinsella was the lone vote against the return plan, saying that her vote was based upon conversations with principals and staff members from her district, who told her they weren’t comfortable returning yet.
The survey results showed that several schools were outliers within their individual districts. Among them:
• Rivers Edge Elementary (29%), Colonial Trail Elementary (28%) and Twin Hickory Elementary (31%) in the Three Chopt District, each with far lower percentages indicating their students would return in person than other schools in the district;
• Sandston Elementary (55%) and Seven Pines Elementary (54%) in the Varina District, both with a higher-than-district-average number of respondents who said they’d send their students back.
A majority of families at most schools indicated that they would require bus transportation for their students and from school in the four-day plan, with high schools accounting for most of the exceptions, since many students drive to school themselves.
