ELIZABETHTOWN — Emereau: Bladen Charter School will remain on internet learning throughout the end of the week, and plans to reopen on Monday.
Families were notified Tuesday evening in a recorded call sent out by the school. Emereau has been closed since Nov. 3, with students and staff engaged virtually to continue learning.
The call said in part, “Due to continued illnesses and the inability to operate buses the remainder of this week, Emereau will remain on a remote learning schedule for the entire school through the rest of the week. We plan to open back for face to face instruction on Monday, Nov. 16. Buses will operate that day.”
There’s a week-and-a-half of school left this semester. The first semester ends on Nov. 24, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and the second semester resumes Jan. 4.
Emereau, with 655 students in kindergarten through ninth grades, was the only public school in Bladen County that chose in-person instruction when their school year began Aug. 10. The school had about one-third of its population choose remote learning only from the outset, putting about one-third of the students into classrooms on Mondays and Tuesdays, and another third on Thursdays and Fridays.
The school has had two stints on the state Department of Health and Human Services’ cluster listing. The first — from Sept. 10 to Oct. 2 — maxed out with one staff member and five children recorded, and the second began Oct. 20 and has listed three cases among staff and two among children.