UPDATE 3/16/2020
Schools will remain closed for all students and staff through March 27. Students will continue to complete work through the virtual learning platform.
According to FCBOE, “The Fayette County School District (FCBOE) School Nutrition Program (SNP) will provide an opportunity for all families in our community to drive through and pick up breakfast and lunch for the children in their family at two distribution sites. Any child (18 and under) is eligible and must be present in order for the meals to be provided. Meals will be served between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., Monday through Friday, in the bus lane at each site. Please stay in your car and the meals will be passed through based on the number of children in the car.” The two distribution sites will be Spring Hill Elementary and North Fayette Elementary.

UPDATE 3/13/2020
All Fayette County schools will be closed Mar. 16 through Mar. 20. Students will participate in virtual learning beginning Monday Mar. 16. Teachers will contact students regarding instructions and assignments.
McIntosh has also postponed prom from Mar. 28 to May 15. “Although a Friday prom is not ideal, we are grateful that the Fox Theater was willing to work with us to delay our prom given this very unique situation,” said Principal Dr. Lane.

UPDATE 3/12/2020
There will be no school for students Friday Mar. 13. FCBOE will be having a teacher workday. All staff will report at 8a.m. More information will be released regarding school operations for next week.
The new attendance policy from FCBOE can be found below.
“The updated guidance is that only attendance from January 7 to March 6 will be counted. The 5 attendance event rule still holds true, and doctor’s notes will not be necessary. It is an evolving thing, but that’s the guidance right now,” said Principal Dr. Lane.

UPDATE 3/12/2020
This morning, the FCBOE website was updated. It stated “Student attendance incentives for all schools are suspended for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year with the following exceptions: High school exam exemptions for attendance, including senior exam exemptions, will be based on attendance from January 7, 2020 through March 6, 2020. Perfect attendance calculations will be addressed at a later time.”
We have reached out to Dr. Lane for further comment and will update throughout the day.

UPDATE 3/11/2020
Principal Dr. Lane gave insight to McIntosh’s current plans for the future in the event of school cancellations due to the coronavirus.

“For McIntosh, I know that there is a virtual plan that is in creation for the county so not just specifically McIntosh. That is on the website so I am not telling you something that is not there. The virtual learning plan is in creation but is not something that is set and stone. I don’t think it will be active if we were to only take one day off, but I do know that the virtual learning plan is something that the county is looking at.”

As far as future graduation plans go, Dr. Lane said “We have missed school days before and it didn’t effect the graduation date so I wouldn’t expect it to.”

ATTENDANCE EXEMPTIONS
A concern for students and parents alike are the exam attendance incentives. According to the Board: “Student attendance incentives for all schools are suspended for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year with the following exceptions: High school exam exemptions for attendance will be based on first-semester attendance. Perfect attendance calculations will be addressed at a later time.”

STUDENT TRAVEL
The Board has also stated new updates on traveling, saying that “Any school-sponsored and/or school system-sponsored travel to areas with a Level 3 or 4 Travel Health Notice advisory for COVID-19, as identified by the CDC or the US Department of State, will be canceled for the duration of the 2019-2020 school year. Currently, travel scheduled within the US, or for areas not identified as high risk, will be evaluated by the school system.”

Both of these mean that for the upcoming weeks, including spring break, FCBOE is prepared for the potential impacts of the COVID-19 virus. 

UPDATE 3/10/2020

Coronavirus is described as an outbreak of respiratory disease that began in China. The virus has been abbreviated COVID-19. According to the CDC, there are currently 423 confirmed cases across the U.S., but the disease spans across 105 countries.
FCBOE came out with an updated message on Mar. 10. They stated “We have confirmed with the Fayette County Health Department that there are presumptive cases of COVID-19 in Fayette County. At this time, we can confirm that these cases are not Fayette County employees or students. We are told that the risk to the general population remains very low. This situation is very fluid; we are continuing to remain in contact with the Georgia Department of Public Health and the Fayette County Health Department for information and guidance.”
On Mar. 9 a Fulton County School system employee tested positive for the virus. The school’s Superintendent, Dr. Mike Looney said the Georgia Department of Health made them aware of the teacher’s diagnosis on Monday morning. The teacher works at Bear Creek Middle School in Fairburn and Woodland Middle School in East Point. The school system sent all impacted schools home early on Monday and has forced them to stay home on Tuesday. They are making decisions on additional closures today. They are also working to contact students and faculty that may have come in contact with the teacher.