UCS trying to find best way forward against COVID-19

BLAIRSVILLE, Ga – Union County parents will have the choice of keeping their child at home for the next month as COVID-19 continues to spike in the community.

Last Friday, Union County Primary School was forced to close for the week because too many teachers were out due to COVID-19. The numbers in all schools continue to spike as the year progresses. Union County Schools (UCS) are navigating their way through a continually changing situation.

Parents can submit notes upon a child’s return to school and all absences between August 28 and September 24 will be excused. Students must complete assignments at home either through Google Classroom or teacher-approved methods.

It’s a stop-gap solution as the school system works to find a better option for teachers and students. Since school started on August 12, the number of cases has continued to quickly increase.

Superintendent John Hill stated they weren’t ready for “something being so fluid.” Last year, COVID-19 followed a more predictable model and students were largely unaffected. Additionally, virtual learning didn’t come naturally to every student. Some children didn’t participate or weren’t engaged like they would have been in a classroom.

Student online engagement’s an issue the entire country faced last year with some children not meeting reading and math standards as a result.

Hill hoped 2021-2022 would be a normal school year, but “it’s not going well right now.”

Around 70 percent of UCS quarantines who have gotten a COVID-19 test are coming back with positive results.

Since August 12, UCS has implemented eight changes to the COVID-19 mitigation protocol and cases continue to climb. On day one, the district positivity rate was .53 percent.

As of the August 27 meeting, 5.85 percent of UCS students and staff were COVID-19 positive and 28.26 percent were in quarantine. Broken down by school:

• Primary School: 5.76 percent, 39 students, 10 staff, 145 quarantine
• Elementary School: 8.07 percent positive, 43 students, 14 staff, 144 quarantine
• Middle School: 5.87 percent positive, 40 students, 4 staff, 341 quarantine
• High School: 4.81 percent positive, 46 students, 4 staff, 344 quarantine
• Woody Gap: 0.00 percent positive, 12 students in quarantine

According to Assistant Superintendent Dr. David Murphy, UCS’s about a week behind the statewide data. The latest report from the Georgia Department of Public Health indicated cases among children are continuing to grow.

Statewide Positivity Rates

• 0-4: 9.9 percent
• 5-17: 16.7 percent
• 18-22: 15.1 percent

All these numbers are up from last week’s report between 1 and 3 percent.

“Things have to change. It’s a fluid situation,” Murphy added. “I would hope that we can continue to make decisions that keep our students and staff safe, provide a quality education, and as Mr. Hill will explain in a moment provide people with options that work best for them and their families.”

Moving Forward

Parents in attendance wanted the school to stay open because a structured environment is potentially safer than potentially being exposed outside elsewhere.

School board member and Union General Hospital (UGH) Chief Nursing Officer Julia Barnett agreed that keeping children in a controlled setting has proven beneficial in the past.

At UGH, they were treating 45 COVID patients between the ages of 23 and 80s. The average age is 58 years old, but the numbers change all the time. 93 percent of the patients at UGH are unvaccinated.

Barnett added that they are seeing more younger people get sick, but for the most part, they are bouncing back more quickly than older patients.

“We could consider not quarantining if they are fully vaccinated. You could consider not quarantining if they have a positive antibody test,” Barnett explained about potentially shrinking the number of quarantined students.

A negative test, however, could allow a potentially positive student or staff member to come back into the system too soon. The initial quarantine for close contacts is five days and depending on the date of the contact, the individual’s viral load might not be detectable by a test yet.

For instance, if the exposure occurred on Friday night and a person was tested on Saturday morning, it’s likely a COVID-19 test wouldn’t register the infection because the viral load is too little. Health officials recommend waiting between three and five days after the exposure to take a COVID-19 test. This way the viral load has a chance to build in one’s system. Symptoms usually develop within three to five as well.

UCS’s also highly recommending masks for its students, but they are not required at this time.

“I don’t think this is going to over real quickly. I hope this spike is,” Hill said. “We’re going to have to be reasonable like Julia said.”

The school’s actively working to determine the best course of action forward. There’s still a chance that at some point every school in Union County could close.

UCS has 165 additional students this year, bringing the total to 3,365. 168 students are COVID-19 positive.

Virtual Learning

A lot of parents have requested an online option for the school year, but as Principal Hussion told the room, “It can’t be what it was before.” Some children didn’t participate at all, and Union County teachers were instructing in person and online students. Not all teachers will be able to pull double duty without a virtual learning day for everyone.

Last year, Union County teachers had a Friday to develop materials for their online learners, but this year students and in-person five days a week.

“What you’ve talked about doing just to make it clear is to have an afterschool, kinda an afternoon option that will not be a burden on the teachers, unless they want to do that,” Barnett stated.

Hill confirmed that is what has been discussed, but nothing’s been finalized.