Dr. Tracy provided an overview of the administration's recommendation on the return to school proposal.  He noted that the COVID-19 data for the Durham area has been declining, but he said that the data showed the area codes around Kestrel still had high rates of infection.  Dr. Tracy noted that the Governor gave school units the ability to reopen their K-5 grades up to in-person instruction, and he noted the results of the survey that 79% of the parents and 60% of staff said that they were not ready for their children to return to in-person instruction in October. 14% of parents and 10% of staff wanted to come back to the building.  Parents responded that 25% of their children have a pre-existing health condition and 55% of them have family members in the home with pre-existing health conditions.

The majority of parents and staff indicated that they were happy with Hawks at Home Academy and on-line learning. The Kestrel administration would recommend a move to plan B hybrid instruction at the end of the first semester on January 26 for K-5 with a move to plan B for grades 6-8 at that time as long as there were no significant increases in the COVID-19 rate.  K-5 would move to plan A in-person instruction by February 15 and 6-8 may move to plan A if and when Governor allows. 

The Board asked questions about K-5 data, the hybrid model and the Hawks Support Center.