VALDOSTA — Gov. Brian Kemp’s order closing K-12 classrooms for the rest of the school year in Georgia doesn’t apply to private schools, but many private schools in Lowndes County are following the governor’s lead.

Kemp’s order, sent out last week, closed all public schools in the state for the rest of the 2019-20 school year as a means of battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brad Lawson, president of Georgia Christian School in Dasher, said via video he had recommended the board of directors close the school for the remainder of the academic year.

“It’s not easy to find silver linings in times like this,” he said, “but GCS has been here since 1914 and made it through World War I, the Spanish flu (epidemic of 1918), the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam and many economic depressions.”

He said the school is committed to finding “some form” of graduation ceremony for seniors.

“I am especially sorry for the seniors and their families that this will not be the end to a normal senior year,” Lawson said. 

At Lighthouse Christian School on Bemiss Road, the school has been closed on a week-by-week basis during the COVID-19 crisis, Principal David Goldberry said.

“We have not yet made a final decision” about the remainder of the year, but school officials hope to know something by the first of the week, he said. The school is definitely closed through the end of April, Goldberry said.

Lighthouse’s 50 students have been carrying on studies at home, Goldberry said. The school offers classes from kindergarten through high school, but had to close its daycare, he said.

At Valwood School near Hahira, the campus is closed for the rest of the academic year, according to the school’s website.

“We ask that students and parents please continue to stay engaged with our distance learning resources,” said John L. Davis Jr., headmaster, in a statement. “While we know you are anxious for answers, we do not want to provide specifics until we are comfortable and confident in doing so.”

Students at Open Bible Christian School in Valdosta are continuing their education at home, Principal Peter Smith said.

“The governor’s order did not cancel school as such,” he said, just the in-person classroom gatherings. Open Bible students have been attending online classes through the Zoom video conferencing service, he said.

Assignments have been sent to students and can be picked up at the school, Smith said.

“Right now there is no student-to-student or student-to-teacher in-person interaction,” he said.

Open Bible has about 200 students from kindergarten through high school, with about 15 seniors, Smith said.

The school is still working out its options for handling kindergarten and high school graduations, he said.

Highland Christian Academy, near Moody Air Force Base, has decided to call an end to the school year at its campus, Principal Codie Tomlinson said.

The 175 students, kindergarteners through high school seniors, have been studying through Google classrooms and using various video chat setups, he said.

“Unlike public schools, families pay tuition for their children’s education here,” Tomlinson said, “so we’ve tried to be pro-active about the online classes.”

Various plans are being considered for senior graduation at Highland. If the stay-at-home order were to be lifted early, a bare-bones in-person ceremony with just the eight graduates could be possible, the principal said.

Another option being considered is an all-online graduation, he said.