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Every regular meeting of the Cleveland County Board of Education features a time for the public to voice their thoughts or concerns. Usually, comments come in groups of two or three, but on Monday 19 people signed up to speak. The sheer volume of commenters required the board to extend the public participation portion of the meeting from the usual 15-minute period to nearly an hour. Speakers came prepared with printed letters and petitions to read or speeches to give. At issue for most is the new board majority and its perceived rush to return students to full-time instruction as the coronavirus pandemic worsens in the community. ....
Cleveland Co. Teachers Worried About K-4 Return to Full In-Person Learning January 7, 2021 The Cleveland County School Board will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday night. “I wanted a way for people to be able to have their voices heard,” says Amanda Buchanan, media specialist at Shelby Intermediate School. She’s started a petition asking Cleveland County School Board members to reconsider plans to return some students to full in-person learning. Currently, Kindergarten through 4th grade students are set to move to “Plan A” on January 19th, a group that includes Buchanan’s daughter. “I know that if there are 22 to 25 children in her fourth grade classroom, there is no way that there will be six feet between those 25 children,” she says. ....