Final COVID report of school year for Columbus area. See how local districts compare

Some school districts in the Columbus area have been issuing weekly news releases announcing the number of reports they’ve received about students and employees testing positive for COVID-19. Others have been posting the data online or not at all.

Here’s the Ledger-Enquirer’s roundup of the information available to help understand how prevalent the coronavirus pandemic is in local schools. This dashboard is updated weekly as new data is available.

Note: School districts don’t conduct COVID-19 testing, so the case numbers are based on reports given to them. This story was last updated May 26. It’s the final report of this data the L-E will publish for the 2020-21 school year.

Muscogee County

COVID-19 numbers increased the last week of the school year in the Muscogee County School District.

MCSD received reports of seven coronavirus cases (three students, four employees) from May 10-14 and 12 cases (11 students, one employee) from Mary 17-21, according to the district’s news release.

The number of in-person students and school-based employees in quarantine or isolation increased during the same period from 103 (50 students, 53 employees) to 200 (189 students, 11 employees).

“Isolation” separates sick people with a contagious disease, and “quarantine” separates people who were exposed to a contagious disease, according to the CDC’s definitions.

The number of COVID-19 cases accounts for in-person students and school-based employees reported with active infections during the specified week. The number of quarantine and isolation cases for in-person students and school-based employees represents the total, considering quarantine periods of 14 days could overlap with reporting weeks.

MCSD has 31,356 students, with 58% taking in-person classes. MCSD has 5,175 employees, with 70% based at a school.

Harris County

The number of active COVID-19 cases reported in the Harris County School District decreased during the past week.

Six cases (three students, three employees) were reported from May 11-17 and one (a student) from May 18-24, according to HCSD’s news release.

The number of people in the district who had close contact with an infected person decreased during the same period from 31 (28 students, three employees) to 27 (all students).

“For COVID-19, per CDC guidelines, a close contact exposure is defined as any individual who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes from 2 days (48 hours) before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, 2 days prior to positive specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated,” HCSD said in its news release. “A person exposed to a close contact exposure should monitor symptoms, but there is no need to quarantine unless they begin to exhibit symptoms.”

HCSD has 5,500 students (85% taking in-person classes) and 771 employees.

Chattahoochee County

The Chattahoochee County School District ended the school year with no absences due to COVID-19.

The number of new coronavirus cases in ChattCo remained zero from the week ending May 14 to the week ending May 21, according to the report on ChattCo’s website.

The number of people in quarantine across the district for possible exposure to COVID-19 decreased during that period from six (four elementary school students, one middle/high school student, one employee) to zero.

ChattCo has 932 students and 138 employees.

Phenix City

Phenix City Schools hasn’t made its COVID-19 data publicly available in a news release or on its website, but superintendent Randy Wilkes has given the Ledger-Enquirer access to the spreadsheet.

The number of new COVID-19 cases in PCS increased from one (a student) the week ending May 17 to two (both students) the week ending May 24.

The number of people in PCS isolating or self-quarantining increased during the same period from three (all students) to four (two students, two employees).

PCS has 7,074 students, with 73% taking in-person classes, and 834 full-time employees.

Russell County

The Russell County School District has been reporting on its website the cumulative total of COVID-19 cases since Sept. 10 among students taking in-person classes and faculty.

The number of cumulative coronavirus cases among RCSD students and faculty increased from 181 as of May 14 to 182 (5% of students and faculty) as of May 21. The cumulative number of students and faculty in isolation or quarantine increased during the same period from 1,867 to 1,879 (49% of students and faculty).

Lee County

Lee County Schools had been reporting on its website a detailed breakdown of its COVID-19 data. But that information hasn’t been available there since the Alabama State Department of Education started Oct. 30 reporting COVID-19 cases for its public schools.

Instead of the number of student and employee cases reported separately, the state data lumps that information together. The number of students and employees in quarantine isn’t disclosed.

The state’s dashboard shows the number of COVID-19 cases in Lee County Schools decreased from seven reported during the week ending May 14 to six during the week ending May 21.

LCS periodically has complied with the Ledger-Enquirer’s request for the more-detailed data it had been posting. The most recent report shows the number of reported coronavirus cases in LCS remained seven from the week ending April 27 (all students) to the week ending May 4 (six students, one employee).

The number of quarantined people in LCS increased during the same period from 47 (43 students, four employees) to 147 (145 students, two employees).

Here is the school-by-school data:

SCHOOL	NEW STUDENT AND STAFF COVID CASES WEEK ENDING APRIL 27	NEW STUDENT AND STAFF COVID CASES WEEK ENDING MAY 4	QUARANTINED STUDENTS AND STAFF AS OF APRIL 27	QUARANTINED STUDENTS AND STAFF AS OF MAY 4
Beauregard Elementary	0	0	1	1
Beauregard High	1	1	11	10
Beulah Elementary	2	2	4	76
Beulah High	0	0	4	16
East Smiths Station Elementary	0	2	2	22
Loachapoka Elementary	0	0	2	5
Loachapoka High	1	0	4	0
Sanford Middle	0	1	1	1
Smiths Station Freshman Center	0	0	2	0
Smiths Station Junior High	1	0	3	3
Smiths Station High	1	0	1	2
South Smiths Station Elementary	0	0	0	0
Wacoochee Elementary	1	1	5	3
West Smiths Station Elementary	0	0	4	8

This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 11:29 AM.

Mark Rice

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

706-576-6272

Mark Rice is the Ledger-Enquirer’s editor. He has been covering Columbus and the Chattahoochee Valley for more than 30 years. He welcomes your local news tips, feature story ideas, investigation suggestions and compelling questions.