District 7's Hurricane Helene Reopening Plan for October 7 – 9

Reopening Schedule Summary:

To prepare more fully for students to return, we will hold a teacher workday Monday, October 7.
All athletics and student activities will resume Monday afternoon.
On Tuesday, October 8 we will operate all schools on a two-hour delay.
Provided all goes well on Tuesday, we will resume normal school operations on Wednesday, October 9.

Preparations on Monday

On Monday, teachers and staff will be preparing to receive students, as we recognize it is everyone’s well-being rather than academics that is most important right now. Our focus Tuesday will be checking in with our students to understand how they are doing, any continuing challenges they face in the aftermath of Helene, and how we can best support them as we resume learning. D7 staff will be completing another assessment of all bus routes on Monday to determine the accessibility of roads. The restocking of school kitchens will also be completed, so we are ready to feed students Tuesday.

All families will receive a communication Monday afternoon confirming plans for Tuesday.

Bus Riders:
Families of bus riders will receive a separate communication Monday afternoon advising of any changes to their route. Bus route changes will also be posted to the Transportation page on our website at spartanburg7.org/transportation.

Returning to School Tuesday

It is important for everyone to arrive at school safely. The two-hour delay will ensure those who usually wait for a bus or begin travel before daylight are not navigating in the dark. Please take extra care and speak with student drivers in your household about looking out for debris and other unexpected obstacles on roads. Parents of student drivers are encouraged to take a test-drive of their route to school WITH THEIR STUDENT on Monday to become familiar with navigating any intersections without power or other obstacles the student will encounter Tuesday morning. We recognize extra drive time may be needed and delays may arise.

Families will receive a communication Tuesday afternoon confirming the return to regular schedule Wednesday.

School principals will be reaching out to families soon. Please let your child’s teacher or the school’s front office know if your family has an extenuating circumstance that impacts their attendance or their need for any additional support.

We hope everyone in our D7 Family continues to recover as well as possible following this devastating storm. Thank you for your ongoing patience, flexibility, and dedication during this challenging time. We will continue to keep you updated as we move forward together.

Superintendent Jeff Stevens