Wait! What? FCPS Will Be Reopening Schools Starting Nov. 9th

At the recent school board meeting and work session held on Wednesday, September 23rd, the School Board decided in a 5-0 vote that FCPS will be reopening schools starting November 9th. Students in grades K-12 will have to decide on one of two options: attending school in a hybrid model or remaining all-virtual.

For the hybrid model, it will be very similar, nearly exact, to the hybrid model Fauquier County Schools were supposed to follow at the beginning of the school year prior to the decision being made for all-virtual learning. If they choose this option, students will follow an AA/BB schedule, with Group A attending school on Mondays and Tuesdays and Group B attending school on Thursdays and Fridays. The groups will be separated by the student’s last name (A-K and L-Z) and Wednesdays will still remain planning days and office hours for teachers.

If students choose to remain all-virtual, it will be very similar to how school is occurring as of right now. Virtual students will be allowed to join a live stream of their class on synchronous days. The live streams of these classes will be provided by a camera placed within the classroom. Along with the hybrid students, the virtual students will attend their classes virtually on their assigned learning days that are separated by their last names in either Group A or Group B.

On the asynchronous days for either Group A or Group B, teachers will still serve and provide instruction to both sets of students: hybrid and virtual.

In the school board meeting, they also discussed the future timeline that they plan to follow leading up to schools reopening. In preparation for these events, the School Board plans to review surveys on October 4th, key the data to planning teams on October 5th, have all cameras installed in each classroom by November 4th, and work on transitioning FCPS staff smoothly during November 2nd-6th.

During these unprecedented events, this story will continue to develop. To stay updated, check back in with Liberty’s Patriot Press as more information will be released in the next several days.