Back to virtual; schools to weigh December options

The county School Board voted last week that all schooling would go fully virtual this week with the hope of returning to hybrid learning on Monday, Dec. 7.

According to Superintendent Haydee Robinson at the time of the meeting, there have been a total of 27 COVID-19 cases since the beginning of school. Thirteen of those cases involved students while 14 involved staff members. In the 11th week, there were six cases. In the 12th week, there were two cases, as well as two cases in the current week. There are currently 13 students and three staff members in quarantine, while one student and one staff member are in isolation with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.

According to Robinson, school officials are taking seriously the recently released recommendations from LENOWISCO and Cumberland Plateau health districts Director Dr. Sue Cantrell when deciding whether students will be in school.

Cantrell has recommended that all eight local school districts move their classes to an all-remote environment until after Christmas break.

The Christmas break for Dickenson County is currently scheduled for Dec. 21 until Jan. 4.

The case transmission rate does not seem to be amplified by students being in school, as several students who have tested positive are remote learners who have not been in attendance, according to Robinson.

“I feel that our schools are probably the safest place for our children,” Robinson said during the meeting. “But, I also recognize the holidays are coming and families may gather. So, will the transmission be greater after that? According to the experts, it appears that may contribute to that.”

Robinson confirmed that her team will evaluate the current COVID-19 rates before the students return to school, with the hope that the schools can return to four-day, in-person learning after the first of the year.

HEALTH DISTRICT GUIDANCE

In her recommendation to school officials, Cantrell advised that reasons to go virtual are “the high and rising burden of COVID-19, the increasing percent of positive tests locally and regionally and the lack of significant adoption of mitigation measures by many people (including wearing masks, physically distancing, avoiding gatherings with people outside our own households and non-essential travel.”

In a released email sent to Buchanan County schools Superintendent Melanie Hibbitts, Cantrell also asked the school districts included in LENOWISCO and Cumberland Plateau to take into consideration “the immediate area and regional hospital capacity” as Ballad Health recently announced the cancellation of all elective procedures and initiated a search for an additional 350 nurses to keep up with the increasing cases.

“I strongly urge you to consider 100% virtual education from the end of Thanksgiving break until return in January 2021, ideally two weeks post holiday celebration times,” Cantrell said in the Nov. 12 recommendation letter to Hibbitts.