County Schools Still Struggling On What Approach To Take As 120 Students, 56 Employees Have COVID

  • Monday, December 7, 2020
  • Joseph Dycus

Much of the conversation on Thursday night’s school board meeting will revolve around COVID testing and a survey given out to parents. Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson and the school board on Monday discussed what the future presentation will go over.

School officials said the number of students with COVID has reached 120 with 1,259 active close contacts.

There are 56 employees with COVID and 102 others awaiting test results. There are 134 close contacts.

“One thing we are tracking feedback on is not the criteria for changing the threshold, but how we may operate within the threshold based on what we’ve learned,” Superintendent Johnson said. “One thing we’ve heard from parents is that they want information, and whether to stay open or closed depending on that information. That has created immense challenges as we’ve fluctuated a lot. We’re trying to get feedback on what we might do and how much time is needed in between announcements of phases.”

He told the school board there have been around 10,000 respondents to this survey. School board member Rhonda Thurman followed by saying, “I don’t know what we expect people to do. I wanted to know where these numbers came from, and they seem arbitrary. We know a lot more than we did back in the beginning.

“Instead of looking at the cases and everybody getting in arms about the cases, we should ask how it is affecting our schools.”

She said Hamilton County was one of the first school systems to come back to school, and she said Hamilton County seems to go backwards. She was not a supporter of teachers missing 10 days in a row multiple times a year, and asked the school board to redefine what it meant to be “exposed” to COVID.

Tiffanie Robinson said several parents have told her they did not see the survey. Superintendent Johnson said the school system will “continue to do blitzes to get people to take advantage of doing the survey.” He said the school system will make another push in a few days. Ms. Robinson said the school board should also ensure the survey gets out to the Latino and Spanish-speaking community in the county as well.

Dr. Johnson also said, “I don’t make decisions to make everybody happy, we make decisions based on what’s best for everybody and what’s best for the children. But generally speaking, you can get consensus on where you should be in the decision-making process.”

He said the question is “political and divided,” and so finding a solution to how the school system should handle the COVID situation is a difficult one.

“I want to make decisions that are best of the children, but if I have a building with 14 teachers who are close contacts, or have four or five teachers who are COVID-positive or have close contacts in households, then operating a school that has 30 teachers is difficult.”

Board member Joe Smith said he was worried about children falling behind in school, but he said he understands that the school board and superintendent are in a tough position. He said he has received several emails on testing in-school for families and students who decided to do school at home.

Superintendent Johnson said the schools are working toward a solution for testing. He told the school board members the process is challenging, and he asked parents to reach out to schools to find out if there are alternative options. He told Joe Smith that the schools should work through it on a case by case basis.

 

Tiffanie Robinson said the point of the survey is to find a way to get children back into school. Board member Jenny Hill reminded the rest of the school board that everyone is on the same team, and should work together.

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