A small Georgia school system will start the school year this week

More than 1,500 students and 100-plus staff and faculty in Jefferson are scheduled to resume classes in-person beginning this Friday. The school’s first day is one of the earliest returns to school in the U.S., following the months of quarantine and school modifications due to COVID-19.

Recently, the Jefferson City School District released its plan to return to face-to-face classes beginning July 31, according to a letter sent to parents earlier this month. The letter notes that returning to classes during the coronavirus pandemic “will be different,” but school officials have a number of plans in place to reduce the risk and number of cases. There will be an option for students to participate in virtual learning via Infinite Campus, and the letter notes that the start date is subject to change.

“We will continue to collaborate with appropriate officials in order to make adjustments to these plans as necessary. We are still awaiting additional guidance, including a matrix that will serve as a monitoring tool to guide system decisions about school closures, which will be provided by the Georgia Department of Public Health and the Georgia Department of Education.”

To help lessen the spread of COVID-19, the school district reported it will “strongly encourage” staff and students to wear face masks. The school system is also employing a nurse practitioner for the school system, which is about an hour drive from Atlanta. Each student will be allotted a mask, but students are advised to stay home if they’re sick and take temperatures at home to monitor their potential COVID-19 symptoms.

Background on Jefferson City Schools

The public school system is facing some harsh criticism for inviting students and teachers to carry on with classes in-person. Before this decision, many parents lauded the small school system, which has been considered one of the top school systems in Georgia for years. In 2018, it was named the highest-performing Title 1 Reward school in the state.

Those statistics drew the attention of Jennifer Fogle when she moved to Georgia from Indiana 13 years ago. She was enamored with the Jackson County town and the teachers, staff and curriculum of the school system. Since hearing the news of in-person classes in the school system, Fogle told The New York Times her perspective on the school system had changed.

She said she found it alarming that as other Georgia districts delayed their back-to-school days or moved to all-remote learning, Jefferson school officials announced they were sticking with their Friday start date.

Fogle, 46, a stay-at-home mother, thinks these decisions are unwise. But after weighing her options, she decided it best to let her two teenage children embrace the risks and physically attend Jefferson High School.

“I can’t fix it,” Fogle said. “So I have to learn, how do we live life as normal as possible and still try to protect ourselves?”

The reopening plans have resulted in a stark split among residents in the middle-class city of about 12,000. Though some concur with Fogle, other families see the need for their children to reengage back to a semblance of normalcy by returning to classes. A spring and summer with digital learning has been socially challenging for students and difficult for working parents with limited child care.

Some students have responded to the reopening plans via a Change.org petition. The petition does not negate starting classes, but it demands that the school system require -- rather than suggest -- masks be worn at the schools. The mask mandates and debates have been heated across the state, with Gov. Brian Kemp striking down all city- and county-level masks mandates earlier this month.

The Change.org petition, “Mandate Masks at Jefferson City Schools,” seeks 1,000 signatures, and it has about 960.

“Masks at Jefferson City Schools are not required. There are many students and teachers that are at great risk if they contract the coronavirus. It is the responsible and safe thing to do to make masks required at our schools.”