Haywood County Schools shares plan to keep students safe

HAYWOOD COUNTY, Tenn. — One West Tennessee school district has a plan to keep students in school, safely.

It’s a lot quieter in the hallways of Haywood County Schools these days, but that’s actually a good sign.

The school district reopened on Monday. They are attempting in-person learning with new measures that include mandatory masks, plastic barriers at every table and social distancing for every grade above preschool.

“Plan your work, and work your plan. And our plan is pretty solid,” said East Side Elementary Principal Tressy Halbrook.

Kindergarten through eighth grade students are split up into odd number days and even number days. This reduces class size and gives teachers some advantage.

“It actually allows the teacher to cover more content during the day, and it also allows them to have more one-on-one interaction with the students,” said Haywood County Schools Superintendent Joey Hassell.

“When the district plan was developed, then we were to create a schoolwide plan based on the district plans,” Halbrook said.

For high school students, they do a hybrid schedule where upperclassmen go Tuesday and Thursday, while underclassmen go Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

About a third of the district chose just virtual learning, which helps split up the duties.

“Our teachers are maybe teaching some grade levels that they haven’t taught before, but the beauty of it is that all of our class sizes are 15 and under,” said Haywood High School Principal Brittany Avent.

“On the days they are not in school, they engage in Microsoft Team and work through OneNote,” Hassell said.

Haywood is also working closely with the health department. They have a contact tracing program with them, where either side can report positive cases as they are made aware.

“Our families need to know that if there is a contact with a positive, they will hear from our nurse, Julie Taylor,” Hassell said.

“If their children are tested at the health department, they are given information to contact the schools and let us know,” Halbrook said.

Hassell says they want to be transparent. They know eventually they will have a positive case in the school system.

What they want is the ability to handle it without shutting everything down.

“Flexibility is the buzz word. And we have to be flexible and adjust to those changes to keep everything running,” Halbrook said.

Haywood County Schools will remain on the even-odd schedule through Thursday, October 1.

Additionally, Monday, August 31 will now become a work day for staff.