Greenville County Schools has the results of an employee survey on reopening schools. More than 7,000 employees responded to the survey, with around 61% of respondents saying they have “serious concerns” about COVID-19.
That 61% can be divided into about 45% who responded they had serious concerns “but those are balanced by the need to educate children” and 16% who responded that the school district should not consider opening the school to the student population now. Around 36% said they had some concerns over the coronavirus, but believe that schools could reopen under precautions.
The survey was open to GCS employees between June 22 and 29.
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The survey also showed that around 40% of employees were in favor of returning to work even if that included a staggered schedule. Almost 75% of employees said they plan to return to work when schools reopen even if there isn’t a widely available vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
Additionally, 74.1% of respondents said that they would prefer a combination of eLearning and in-person instruction if those were the only two choices. Only 5,044 responded to that question.
“Greenville County Schools shares the general belief that while there is no equivalent substitute for in-person instruction, we must remain cautious in how we return to school, given the current pandemic conditions,” said Tim Waller, GCS spokesman.