Surge of COVID-19 causes some Columbus area schools to switch to only virtual classes
The post-Thanksgiving COVID-19 surge is disrupting in-person classes in some Columbus area schools.
Citing a high rate of exposures to the coronavirus, Smiths Station High School has stopped conducting in-person classes for the rest of the week. SSHS announced the news on its Facebook page Monday.
Monday night, the Troup County School System announced in a news release that the district’s “highest number of positive and quarantined cases since school started in August” prompted the school board to agree with the administration’s recommendation to conduct only virtual classes during the week after Christmas break.
Smiths Station
With the Christmas break coming up, Jan. 6 is the soonest in-person classes will resume at SSHS, the announcement says. Lunch, however, will be available to be picked up at the rear of the school, where the buses line up, from 11 a.m. to noon.
The students who were taking classes on campus will complete assignments for the rest of the week through Google Classroom, where teachers will post assignments and lessons each day. Teachers also will have virtual office hours to help students, according to the announcement.
Students who had been taking classes virtually will continue working on Edgenuity, the announcement says.
All in-person school activities have been suspended until Dec. 24, according to the announcement.
In an emailed interview Tuesday with the Ledger-Enquirer, SSHS principal Brad Cook didn’t provide the number of reported infections and exposures among students and employees, but he said, “It seems like it is a daily occurrence at this point in which we lose many kids and staff due to exposures more so than actual positives.”
Approximately 70% of the 1,319 students had been taking in-person classes, Cook said.
“It was a very difficult decision to make as we feel the best learning opportunities are within the classroom with the teacher,” he said. “ However, with the uptick in cases, we felt it was in the best interest for the health and safety of everyone at Smiths Station High School at this moment to transition.”
Troup County
COVID-19 exposures have caused TCSS to quarantine “upwards of 700 students and staff member” since the Thanksgiving break, superintendent Brian Shumate said in the news release.
As a precaution against that happening after the Christmas break, Shumate said conducting only virtual classes the first week of the second semester “is an effort to get ahead of any potential cases. … Families will have time to monitor any symptoms that might be arising, and then get their children and themselves tested before coming back to in-person learning.”
According to the district’s COVID dashboard, as of Tuesday, TCSS had reports of 49 students and 18 employees with current coronavirus infections and 682 students and 62 employees in quarantine for possible exposure.
TCSS has 76% of its students taking in-person classes, district spokeswoman Yolanda Stephen told the Ledger-Enquirer.
This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 7:18 PM.
