Area schools seeing decline in COVID cases over recent weeks

Sep. 18—ALBANY — School-age children so far have been spared the brunt of the impact of COVID-19 — although pediatric cases have shot up during the current surge — but the virus has impacted everything from proms to graduation to sporting events.

Over the course of the pandemic, students were largely forced last year to receive virtual instruction at home.

And during the short time students have been back in school this year, there have been interruptions in on-campus learning at a number of area schools, with students returning briefly to online instruction or hybrid schedules of some on-campus and some virtual learning.

The Dougherty County School System may have enacted the most sweeping coronavirus protocol in the region, requiring face masks since the school year began last month where at others, masks are optional. It also has rolled out a testing program that will eventually include all schools in the system for its roughly 13,000 students.

Other precautions include air filtration systems in classrooms and buses and three-sided shields at desks.

Not surprisingly, the system's decisions have not been popular with all parents, but criticism comes from both directions — those who say the measures are too restrictive and those who say more should be done, Schools Superintendent Kenneth Dyer said.

For the week of Sept. 10-16, the school system reported 79 students tested positive, as did 13 staff members. During the week, 150 students and 11 staff were quarantined.

"I have received communications and visitors who don't see the value of the mask requirement, who don't want their children to have to wear masks for school," Dyer said. "For the most part, they're cordial. When I explain ... they understand. They may not agree. Some are not as cordial.

"On the other hand, we have people who say we should shut the schools and go all-virtual again because cases in the community are high."

The Dougherty County School Board has tried to chart a middle course of providing the most protections possible while returning to in-person instruction, which Dyer in the past has linked to better educational results and a healthier environment for students than staying home for weeks on end.

"There's no way to make everybody happy, so you can't focus on that," he said. "I have to do the best for the students and explain my (decisions)."

Another component of the protocols put in place is encouraging vaccinations for all staff and students who are eligible to take them. Last month the School Board approved a $1,000 incentive for staff members who are vaccinated, and the response has been positive, Dyer said.

The best way for schools and society to return to a more normal way of life is if enough individuals get vaccinated to establish herd immunity in the community, the superintendent said.

"It's a deadly virus," Dyer said. "We have to respect it's a deadly virus, and we have to take the necessary precautions and encourage other people to do the same.

"I understand personal liberties, and I don't want to take those things away. But when those conflict with public health, in my opinion we need to take these measures. We've made adjustments since we started the past school year to now. We're all learning. We're all making the decisions we hope will be the right decisions."

In making those calls, school officials are making use of information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Georgia Department of Public Health and other experts.

The decision to offer an incentive program for teachers was based on the surge that occurred last year following the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

"Last November when we returned from Thanksgiving, we noted an increase in our schools and our community," Dyer said. 'We were concerned about that happening again this year."

In Colquitt County students at two schools returned to in-person learning the past week after two weeks of a hybrid schedule that meant alternating days on campus and learning at home.

In its latest weekly report posted on Monday, Colquitt County Schools reported that 66 of the system's 9,028 students tested positive, a rate of 0.73 percent, and 13 of 1,335 staff members.

About 1,400 students each at Willie J. Williams Middle School and C.A. Gray Junior High were affected by the move to a hybrid schedule.

"The students at these two schools went back to in-person instruction on Monday," Angela Hobby, chief communications officer for the school system that has a mask-optional policy, said. "We've seen a decrease at all of our schools. We're glad all of our students are having in-person instruction, and we're allowing everybody to be safe."

As Dyer also noted, most of the infections are occurring outside the schools, where transmission appears to be rare, Hobby said. For Friday's football game, none of the players was positive.

"I think that's pretty much common all over; it's occurring in whatever activities they're doing after school hours," she said of transmission of the virus.