ELIZABETHTOWN — The youngest grades of the Bladen County Schools district partially returned to the classroom Monday morning.
The district’s plan to slowly populate its school buildings began with kindergarteners through fourth grade coming back to classes. At each of six schools, students are designated as A or B groups and get two days of in-person instruction each week and three days through the internet.
Families were also given, by order of Gov. Roy Cooper and carried out by the district, the option of doing remote learning only for all five days.
All students have been doing remote learning since school began on Aug. 17. If conditions permit, grades 5-8 return to buildings on Oct. 5 and grades 9-12 on Oct. 23.
The district’s pre-kindergarten through fourth grades schools are Bladen Lakes Primary, Bladenboro Primary, Dublin Primary, East Arcadia, Elizabethtown Primary and Plain View Primary.
The schools host one group of students on Mondays and Tuesdays, have a deep cleaning day set aside for Wednesdays, and the other group comes on Thursdays and Fridays.
The district’s normal laptop user fee of $20 annually is being waived this year for all grade levels.