Gov. Cooper's press office says no announcement will be made on future of schools today

Cooper is scheduled to speak at 3 p.m. with an update on COVID-19. It's been reported previously that an update on the status of schools would be determined based on COVID-19 numbers on July 1. However, in a press release Tuesday evening, the governor's office said "Tomorrow's (Wednesday) press conference will not include an announcement on how statewide K-12 public schools will open this coming school year."

No further statement has been released by the governor or his press team about when that decision or announcement would be made.

This announcement from the governor's office appeared to have caught the Wake County Public School System off-guard, as a post from their Facebook page read from yesterday: "Gov. Cooper is expected to share an update about re-opening schools either today or tomorrow."

All school districts are required to create three plans for learning -- one plan expecting that students are back in the classroom with social distancing in place, another plan with part e-learning and part in-class learning, and another plan of all remote learning.

Wake County's traditional school calendar is set to begin August 17, which is 6 weeks away. Year-round schools are expected to start even earlier, on August 3.