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Henrico County Public Schools received more than 13,000 responses to its back-to-school survey, and officials are still reviewing and analyzing them for trends, HCPS spokesman Andy Jenks told the Citizen in an email Thursday.
The survey, sent to HCPS parents, guardians and staff members, closed July 5. It asked about two approaches to the fall: a hybrid learning pathway — through which students would be split into two groups that would alternate half-days, days or weeks of on-campus instruction, with the group not on campus learning virtually — and a fully virtual pathway.
On July 1, Virginia entered Phase Three of reopening, which allows for in-person instruction for all students with the implementation of physical distancing measures. School system officials are basing their return plans on the assumption that the state will be in Phase Three in September.
Some parents were upset that the survey did not include consideration of a full-time in-person return to school, but school officials have indicated that they believe state and federal guidelines would prevent that as a viable – and legally defensible – option.
The survey permitted one response per household. The school system has more than 51,000 students, but a significantly smaller number of total student households, since many families have multiple students in the system.
Jenks did not say how many households received the survey. He also declined the Citizen’s request to view a sampling of survey results but said the school system plans to publicize the results soon.
After the survey was emailed in late June, a number of parents commented in social media forums and on the HCPS Facebook page that they hadn’t received it. HCPS replied, “Hi all, what we’re finding out is that the survey program is still processing, and there are some emails that are still in the queue waiting to be sent. The system is still working, and will be sending the rest of the surveys throughout the day. Thank you for your patience!”
The Henrico School Board is hosting a town hall meeting on July 14 at Glen Allen High School to provide an update on the reopening process and receive written and in-person comments and questions form the public. The event is limited to 250 in-person attendees, and officials are requesting that no more than one person per household attend.
The meeting also will be live-streamed through http://henricoschools.us.
– Tom Lappas contributed to this article
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