Parents Upset With School District’s Back-To-School Plan

LOUISVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- The new school year is just days away and some school districts are still wrestling with what they believe is best for students and staff.

In Louisville, some parents are worried about the plan their district has proposed.

The proposed plan has kids returning to the classrooms and virtual courses are only being offered to students with underlying health issues.

Stacy Thames, who has a child that attends Louisville High School, said he has many concerns with the district’s tentative plan.

“I don’t think the plan is safe at all,” said Thames, a concerned parent. “With the amount of kids in the school district, there’s no way you can social distance these kids in 200 square foot classrooms, six feet apart.”

Thames said he wants the district to amend the plan to include more options for students to learn safely.

“If the numbers are worse now, why would we put our kids back in that situation where it’s going to be even more dangerous,” he asked. “We know right now that somebody is going to send their kid in the traditional route to school sick, and then everybody is going to be exposed that’s in the classroom.”

He said the district made the plan without hearing from parents.

As a result he then organized the group Concerned Parents of Louisville Municipal School District.

The more than 200-member group has expressed they don’t feel comfortable having their children strictly doing traditional style learning.

“We did a survey of the option the parents want for school,” Thames explained. “Sixty-five percent said they would prefer virtual, thirty-two said they would prefer hybrid, and .01 percent said they want traditional, so that lets us know now that our parents are not feeling safe with their kids going back into the classroom.”

“It makes me feel like they are being kind of selfish at this point, and overlooking the fact that we have parents, and without the parents and the children, there is no school,” said Erica Brown, a concerned parent.

According to the proposed plan, students who do the virtual route won’t be allowed to do any extra-curricular activities.

Now, Thames and others plan to bring these issues to district leaders directly when they speak at Thursday’s board meeting.

“Yes, there are parents who work and they have to send their children to school, however, if we were mandated in March when the pandemic broke out to do social distancing and do learning online, then why can’t we have that option now without consequences,” said Toni Nicholson-Jackson, a concerned parent.

“We’re not fighting just for the kids, we’re fighting for the staff, and the teachers, and everyone else that works with the school system,” Thames expressed. “We ask that the board listens to us and let the stakeholders, who are the parents, have a say.”

The plan LMSD released is strictly a tentative plan.

The school board will meet on Thursday and vote on whether to adopt the plan as is, or make changes.

The meeting is at 5:30 P.M. at the central office.

Clicked the highlighted link to view the district’s proposed plan.