LEESBURG, Va. — Virtual classes start Tuesday in Loudoun County, but teachers in that Northern Virginia community are already thinking about the future.
On Tuesday night, Loudoun Education Association President Sandy Sullivan plans to present the Loudoun County school board with a petition at its scheduled school board meeting.
The petition, which has roughly 1,000 signatures on Change.org, calls for Loudoun County Public Schools to hold a simulated school day for teachers before the system welcomes more students back for hybrid learning later in the year.
Sullivan said the day would be used to examine the safest and most efficient ways to have children study in school buildings during the age of COVID-19.
“So getting on a bus, getting to school, transitioning from the bus, into the building into their classroom, whatever kind of health checks that would happen between there and getting to a classroom," she said.
Sullivan said the Loudoun Education Association first started its petition to promote a simulated school day two months ago.
A few Loudoun County students will attend classes in-person Tuesday at Monroe Technology Center. However, the school district said even more students in the Aligned Standards of Learning and Early Childhood Special Education curriculum could participate in hybrid learning by late October.
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Sullivan said it is important to make sure the school district has thoroughly prepared to reintroduce those back into its school buildings.
“The more information you have, the sooner you have it, the better able you are able to adjust plans and tailor them," she said.