A Macon County resident diagnosed with COVID-19 has died. The person was over the age of 65 and had underlying health conditions. To protect the family´s privacy, no further information will be released about this patient.

Swain County will be operating this fall under a hybrid of in-person and remote learning. Parents can choose Plan B, which includes in-person instruction and remote learning or Plan C, which is entirely remote learning. 

Parents of Macon County students will have to choose their child’s learning plan for fall semester by July 31. 

As the Coronavirus Pandemic continues to grow in both size and scope, educators across the country and the state have had to make some difficult decisions on how to proceed. When the Haywood County Schools Board of Education got their chance to weigh in on July 22, the board approved a “cautious” plan intended to slowly transition from remote-only to in-person learning over a period of weeks. 

The start of this school year has been a topic fraught with debate about student needs, logistical hurdles and funding shortfalls. But, the voices and opinions of teachers seem to have been left out of the conversation when communities and schools need them most. 

In less than three weeks, classes will resume at Western North Carolina’s institutions of higher learning, and while instruction won’t rely entirely on digital learning as occurred this spring, the fall semester will be far from business as usual. 

Public schools and colleges are being forced to develop plans, contingency plans and worst-case scenarios as they prepare for the influx of thousands of students over the next several weeks.

• Colleges, universities announce plans for fall 2020
• Teachers concerned for school safety
• Haywood chooses hybrid plan for school reopenings
• Macon schools offer virtual option
• Back to school plans for Swain County

Since the Coronavirus Pandemic began, Zoom meetings have become a commonplace replacement for government meetings that would otherwise take place in person. 

Despite seemingly doing everything right, a long-term care facility in Haywood County is now reporting 36 cases of COVID-19, spread among residents and staff. 

Standing in front of a microphone on Sunday evening, singer-songwriter Jane Kramer looked out onto the small, socially-distant crowd inside The Grey Eagle Music Hall in Asheville. Each table of patrons were several feet from the next table. Though masks covered the faces, the smiles and laughter could not be contained.