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Lunenburg County Public School (LCPS) students will return to in-person learning for the first time in almost a year this week.

On Wednesday, Feb.24 and Thursday, Feb. 25, all LCPS students in Group B will report to school, according to Lunenburg County School Superintendent Charles. Berkley Jr.

All other LCPS students will be virtual those two days, and all LCPS Students will be virtual on Friday, Feb. 26.

Ashley Sweitzer’s son is in Group B.

“I’m glad they’re going back to school. They should have been back in school,” Sweitzer said. “Children being in school is no different than people going to Walmart or Food Lion or the mall or anywhere else so if you’re not going to let people go to school and to church then stop people from going shopping.”

On Monday, Mar. 1 and Tuesday, Mar. 2, all LCPS students in Group A will attend school. Group B will attend Wednesday, March 3 and Thursday, March 4.

“The hybrid A/B schedule will continue this way moving forward,” Berkley said.

According to LCPS, hours for the elementary schools will be from 8:50 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. School hours for middle and high school will be from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

On Friday, Feb. 19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new guidance on how schools can safely reopen for in-person learning.

According to the CDC, all schools can safely reopen for full in-person learning if they follow appropriate protocols and are located in communities reporting fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past seven days and have a positivity rate lower than 8%.

The Department of Education also released its own guidance for in-person learning to supplement the CDC’s guidance.

According to data from Burbio, a service that tracks school opening plans, almost 65% of K-12 students are already learning in person to some degree either in the traditional or hybrid modes.