Choctaw County School District Superintendent, Glen Beard, speaking of the first semester said, “I would call it a success because we got it in.”
Beard added that even in August if someone told him they would make it until Labor Day he would have been skeptical. But, they went from one holiday to another, with each one being a benchmark and made it through the entire semester.
He said the motto had been take one day at a time, and the faculty and staff had done a really good job.
Students in grades 9-12 did have to go virtual due to outbreaks on two different occasions, but only for a total of three weeks.
Beard counted that as a positive, and getting the football and volleyball seasons in was a big plus.
Some basketball games have been canceled, but it is a much different environment than football, and with flu season coming numbers in the gym have to be limited.
The number of positive COVID cases among students has remained low, according to Beard, but the real problem is close contact tracing among older students.
CCSD students will maintain a hybrid schedule after the Christmas break with male students one day and female students the next, rather than dividing by last name.
Beard said this would allow accommodation for different groups, such as the choral group, and basketball teams. The hybrid schedule will affect grades 7-12 only, for the first two weeks of the semester.
