King Laurence had barely settled in as the new superintendent for Aiken County public schools when the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Aiken-Augusta area in mid-March 2020. He was named superintendent in February after serving as interim superintendent since Sept. 2019.
In early 2020, Laurence watched as reports began coming out of Atlanta. Knowing Aiken, Richmond and Columbia County schools would likely be impacted at the same time and in the same way, he, along with Dr. Kenneth Bradshaw, superintendent of Richmond County schools and Sandra Carraway, then superintendent in Columbia County, began working on how to respond. They came up with a plan on how to handle class work, how to talk with parents and how to coordinate with local municipalities and businesses. They were ready.
Then, on March 13, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency. Two days later, another executive order closed all schools.
“All of our plans were out the window and we had to scramble,” he recalled. “One of the things that we got out of that was we really learned how resilient we were. We only missed teaching students two days. It took us a little bit longer to get packets together and come up with an instructional plan.”
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That was the first lesson learned. It was to be the first of many over the following weeks and months.
“I think now when we think about emergency planning, we’re thinking in terms of long term. And that way, even if it is a short-term thing, we’re going to be able to continue instruction,” he said. “So, the next storm, we’ll have a plan in place. We also know how to mobilize to feed people and that’s going to come in handy as well, no matter what the emergency might be.”
There were also rapid-fire advances in technology, growth that may have been years in the future under normal circumstances.
“I think it certainly accelerated our plans for getting one-to-one technology in the hands of all of our students,” he said. “It’s something that we piloted a little bit in a few schools. It’s something that that we had in our long-range plans, but five years out from a budget standpoint, and just from a logistics standpoint. Something that was going to take four or five years, suddenly, we’re able to do it in a year.”
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Aiken schools received a total of $100 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act and the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.
That money helped alleviate the costs of buying laptops, additional technology and safety items such as hand sanitizers, masks, desk dividers and supplies to sanitize classrooms and school buses.
The district was also able to hire about a dozen technology specialists to help students, parents and staff navigate remote and virtual learning.
“There are so many more pieces to it than just having the ability of students to learn remotely,” he said. “It’s exciting. There are certainly some growing pains associated with it. I’d rather not have a pandemic cause it to happen, but I’m glad that we were able to accelerate that and get those plans going a lot faster than we would have been able to otherwise.”
Among the beneficial lessons, the advances and the accomplishments came hard lessons of loss.
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Just three weeks into the start of the 2021-2022 school year, COVID-19 claimed the lives of two students in Aiken County.
Ethan Blue, a 9-year-old student at North Augusta Elementary School and 15-year-old Emily Brosnahan from Aiken High School died on Sept. 1.
Staff members were not spared. COVID-19 took Gisele Moreland, a secretary-bookkeeper at Aiken Elementary School. Angela Dicks, a special education aide at Aiken Elementary, and Candace Beasley, who teaches first grade at Clearwater Elementary, both lost their husbands. Beasley was married to North Augusta Department of Public Safety Officer Dustin Beasley, who died Aug. 30.
Laurence said support from his family and faith in God got him through the tough times.
“I don’t try to impose my faith on other people or anything like that, but I’m not adverse to expressing what my faith does for me,” he said. “And that is where my strength comes from.”
As 2021 winds down, Laurence said students, parents and staff should be proud of what they’ve accomplished over the past 20 months. He believes they enter 2022 stronger.
“When you go through a trial, you got two choices. You can let it beat you down or you can make the best of it and become stronger for it,” said Laurence. “When I look at our students and our families, our teachers and other staff members, I believe they’ve taken it and used it to make them stronger and better. I feel good about that. And I’m proud to be associated with the men and women who work in the school system. They’re an amazing group of people.”
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a Staff Reporter with The Augusta Press. You can reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
