CCSD Superintendent reflects on challenging year, looks ahead to fall

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – During a Charleston County School District board meeting on Monday, Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait took a moment to reflect on the 2020-2021 school year and the obstacles the district overcame.

While CCSD staff, parents, and students breathed a collective sigh of relief as summer break finally arrived, getting through the year was nothing short of a difficult time.

“One of the most amazing [accomplishments] is the plexiglass dividers that we feel helped keep our spread rates down,” said Superintendent Postlewait.

60 miles of plexiglass filled CCSD classrooms. That’s about the distance from Mt. Pleasant to Georgetown.

Another accomplishment is that CCSD is one of the largest school systems in the nation to offer in-person learning from day one of the 2020 fall semester.

Superintendent Postlewait gave a special shoutout to the nursing staff working on the frontlines.

“There was timely contact tracing. All of the work our nurses did…over ten thousand vaccinations…That’s just amazing,” said Postlewait.

CCSD staff keeping safety number one as the district works on a final plan for the next school year.
A tentative copy of the Safe Return plan published last week but those protocols could change.

“We have two months before school starts again. We want to make sure we don’t jump the gun when we don’t have to because conditions can change,” said Jeff Borowy, CCSD’s Chief Operating Officer.

The district is taking notes on what went wrong and what went right last year and leaders are bringing those into the Safe Return plan.

One major change is that the plexiglass is likely coming down.

“There still may be some schools that have plexiglass in place but those are the schools that want it in place,” explained Borowy.

As for masks in schools, CCSD leaders say they’ll be talking with medical professionals and monitoring COVID-19 trends over the summer and will come to a final decision closer to the first day of school.