Staff at Jackson County School District test positive for COVID-19
As the Jackson County School District prepares for a traditional reopening on Aug. 6, some staff in the district have tested positive for COVID-19, Superintendent John Strycker confirmed in an interview Monday.
Strycker said he could not confirm the number of positive cases or the schools and facilities where employees tested positive, in order to protect the privacy of the employees.
“When we do have a reported case with staff members or students, we inform those who have been in contact with those staff members,” Strycker said. “But we try to keep it as general as possible to protect those people.”
The positive cases highlight the challenges facing school districts as they plan to bring thousands of students and hundreds of teachers and administrators back to campus in just a few weeks. During the summer, fewer people are in the school buildings, so social distancing, contact tracing, and informing community members are more straightforward. All of those tasks will become more complex when students return to campus.
Jackson County, like several other districts on the Coast, has opted for a mostly traditional reopening, with distance learning available for students whose families are concerned that returning to campus is unsafe.
Strycker said that Jackson County’s decision-making has been informed by a group of medical professionals, including representatives of Singing River Health System and Coastal Family Health Center, as well as district nurses and administrators. The group has found that case numbers among Jackson County School District students are low, Strycker said.
But in Jackson County at large, cases are rising quickly. Last week, the county ranked in the top 12 counties in the state for new cases, with 85 reported. On Friday, Gov. Tate Reeves extended for an additional two weeks an executive order mandating masks and strict social distancing in 13 counties, including Jackson and Harrison counties.
Around the state, teachers and parents have protested reopening plans that call for most students to be on campus. On Friday, teachers and supporters rallied at the State Capitol in Jackson to demand districts postpone reopening until Sept. 1.
Strycker said that his district is pursuing a grant that would enable Jackson County to place nurse practitioners in schools and provide quick, accessible testing for COVID-19 to staff and students.
If the grant application is successful, it will help the district with its contact tracing and monitoring efforts.
“We are of course keeping close statistics for staff and students because those are the statistics we’re going to use as we make our decisions regarding school,” Strycker said. “But we’re not releasing those numbers.”
