Ocracoke plan: Students in class by Sept. 30

NCCAT agrees to house secondary class students

Part of Hyde County’s plan to get Ocracoke School students back into the classroom after Hurricane Dorian took a significant step forward on Sept. 20 when the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT) Board of Trustees voted to allow Ocracoke School to use its Ocracoke Campus building for secondary classes until January 2020.

As a result of the powerful storm, Ocracoke School had 40 inches of water inside the building in places, and severe damage to walls and floors.

“Hyde County Schools Superintendent Steve Basnight reached out to me to see if they could utilize our facility,” said NCCAT Executive Director M. Brock Womble. “We feel like the most valuable thing NCCAT can do for Ocracoke School and Ocracoke Island is to be a resource to help them rebuild.”

“I can’t thank NCCAT enough for allowing us this opportunity to get our kids back to school,” Basnight reported during the Board of Trustees meeting.

In a follow-up email to the Voice, Basnight wrote that the current plan is to have all Ocracoke School students back in school in several different locations by Monday, Sept. 30. The pre-K, kindergarten and first grades will be housed at the Day Care Building. Second graders through fifth graders will be upstairs in the elementary building. And sixth graders through twelfth graders will be at the NCCAT facility and/or taking classes virtually in other locations.

As a caveat, Basnight noted that implementing the complex plan “is contingent on a multitude of issues coming together. But we have a plan.  So far, we are still on track, but that could change at any point.”