Harrison County School District to offer temporary virtual option as COVID spikes
Harrison County School District students can choose to learn virtually starting next week through Labor Day, according to copies of letters to parents with Wednesday’s date.
School board member Dr. Barbara Thomas confirmed that the district had decided to offer the option to all students.
The Sun Herald reviewed letters to parents at Lizana Elementary and Harrison Central High School. The letters could change before they are sent to parents.
“We know that students are best served in the classroom under the direction of their teachers,” the letter from Lizana Elementary principal Dr. Dawn Hearn says. “We do recognize that at this time a temporary virtual learning option is needed. The optional virtual learning window will start Monday, August 23rd, and end on Friday, September 3rd. All students will return on Tuesday, September 7th, following the Labor Day holiday.”
Parents are asked to indicate whether their child will remain on campus or participate in virtual learning.
“I understand that if our household does not have internet, I am responsible for contacting my child’s teacher for alternate assignments,” reads a note next to Option 2, virtual learning.
Virtual learning was previously only possible for kids with “severe medical conditions” under the district’s homebound option.
The district is offering free grab and go meals for students who participate in virtual learning.
Thomas said the plan was developed by district administrators, including Superintendent Mitchell King and school principals. School board members were consulted individually, she said.
Responding to COVID-19
The district’s plan appears to be unusual among Coast districts so far this school year. Other districts, including Hancock County, Pass Christian and Stone County, have closed schools after COVID-19 cases among students and staff in recent weeks.
The state health department defines an outbreak as three or more COVID-19 cases in a classroom or group like a sports team or band. It recommends schools “consider dismissal of the entire student/faculty” if three or more outbreaks are reported simultaneously, or if a large number of absences are affecting instruction and learning.
According to the most recent data collected by the state health department, for the week of Aug. 9-13, just under 1,500 students in the Harrison County School District were quarantined. That’s 10% of the district’s student body of about 15,000.
Between 65 and 122 teachers tested positive, and between 185 and 204 students. (When a district reports a case number of five or fewer, the state health department lists the figure as “1-5” to protect privacy, so the Sun Herald calculated upper- and lower-end possibilities using that range.)
Only two schools reported that their cases constituted outbreaks: Woolmarket Elementary and the Child Development Center, which both reported two outbreaks.
Harrison County is one of two Coast districts that does not require masks for students and staff.
