Loudoun School Board Votes To Implement All-Virtual Start In Fall
LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA — The Loudoun County School Board voted early Wednesday to direct Loudoun County Public Schools administrators to implement a 100-percent distance learning model for the return to classes in the fall.
Reversing earlier plans to offer both in-person and distance learning, Loudoun County Superintendent Eric Williams made an argument at Tuesday's school board meeting for an all-virtual start for the school district's 83,000 students.
Board member Harris Mahedavi (Ashburn District) made the motion to implement a full-time distance-learning model. After another marathon meeting that extended into Wednesday morning, the motion passed 7-2, with Jeff Morse (Dulles District) and John Beatty (Catoctin District) opposed to 100-distance learning.
The change in course comes three weeks after the board voted to endorse a hybrid instructional model that offered parents the option to send their children to school two times a week or participate in 100-distance learning.
Based on the latest health information related to the coronavirus, LCPS said it believes the school year should start with no in-person instruction. Instead, the school district adopted a 100-percent distant learning model for all students and will "proceed with implementing the planned hybrid model in stages."
In Fairfax County, Virginia's largest school district, the school system also backtracked from its previous decision to offer both in-person and 100-distance learning to students. On Tuesday, Superintendent Scott Brabrand recommended all of Fairfax County Public Schools' approximately 189,000 students start the school year virtually.
Later on Tuesday, the Fairfax County School Board approved Brabrand's recommendation to start the school year virtually due to an increase of coronavirus cases in Virginia.
The proposed change in Loudoun County comes after the school system spent the past few weeks surveying parents and teachers on which type of instruction they would prefer.
Last Friday, LCPS released the results of a survey that showed 50 percent of parents had chosen the 100-percent distance learning option for students in the Loudoun County Public Schools system. The hybrid model of learning was chosen by the parents of about 39 percent of the students who attend Loudoun schools. Eleven percent of the parents of students made no choice.
Prince William and Arlington counties, along with the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, had already approved plans to begin the fall semester with 100-percent virtual instruction.
This article originally appeared on the Leesburg Patch
