HANCOCK COUNTY — A school is closing for two weeks while others are requiring masks and bolstering virtual learning opportunities as the COVID-19 pandemic continues interfering with another academic year.
The measures aim to stem cases from rising and quarantines from persisting in the hundreds, while acknowledging that extended learning from home appears to once again be a reality.
Veering virtual
In the Mt. Vernon school district, the middle school is switching to fully virtual learning starting on Aug. 23, with plans to return to in-person on Sept. 7. The corporation said a “reset” is needed at the school, which reported having 22 COVID-19 cases on Friday and started requiring masks earlier in the week.
McCordsville Elementary School and Fortville Elementary School currently require masks as well, having entered the orange tier of the school corporation’s health and safety plan, the second most severe. Both schools were reporting nine cases each on Friday. Each of their absentee rates due to combined illness were under 5%. At 20%, the health and safety plan calls for the corporation to consult with the Hancock County Health Department about possibly closing a school.
Mt. Vernon High School reported having 10 cases on Friday, placing it in the yellow tier, halfway between the initial green tier and red, the most severe. Mt. Comfort Elementary School had two cases, making it blue, the second least severe.
The school corporation reported earlier this week having more than 400 close contacts among students and staff who were exposed to someone with COVID-19, many of whom have to stay home in quarantine. Some are able to avoid quarantining due to being fully vaccinated from the novel coronavirus.
Mt. Vernon recently established several practices for supporting students at home due to testing positive for COVID-19 or being a close contact of someone who has.
“In all sincerity, these plans really describe what many teachers were already doing even dating back to our first quarantine case,” Mt. Vernon assistant superintendent Chris Smedley said at a school board meeting earlier this week.
The outlined support includes getting assignments and materials to students no later than 48 hours after teachers are notified of close contacts, and pushing out assignments and materials electronically in most cases. It also calls for direct instruction from teachers, specialists and other support staff; and/or indirect instruction in the form of links to videos, recordings and other resources. Check-ins, assistance and follow-up with students from staff are part of the protocols as well.
The process hasn’t been without its difficulties. Stephanie St. John recalled how her daughter, a Mt. Vernon High School student, was identified as a close contact and went over 48 hours without hearing from teachers.
“I know her teachers are so overworked and so underpaid,” St. John told school board members. “I don’t envy their job, and I will confidently say I can’t fathom what a day in their shoes would be like. But if (contact) tracing is our future, it might be time to add a few more positions to their staff, possibly a liaison between your teachers and students who could be available for instruction and guidance to help navigate it all.”
‘Critical levels’
Southern Hancock will require masks in all its schools starting Monday, Aug. 23.
“In the last several days, the number of student absences due to contact tracing has approached critical levels,” superintendent Lisa Lantrip said in an email to families on Friday, adding the total is near 500. “Multiple schools are on the brink of the 20% absence threshold for building closure from the Hancock County Health Department.”
She and the school corporation’s administrative team faced a difficult decision, she continued — return to face coverings to reduce the number of close contacts, or continue down a path toward virtual learning.
“Students need to be in school,” Lantrip said. “This has been our guiding principle during this pandemic. We are committed to doing whatever it takes to keep students in school.”
In an environment without masks, a close contact is an individual within 6 feet of someone with COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more within a 24-hour period. With masks, that distance shrinks to 3 feet, likely leading to less close contacts.
The 3-foot threshold does not apply at lunch, during physical education classes or certain extracurricular activities in which students are physically active, however, Lantrip said, as face coverings will not be worn in those situations.
“Moving forward, we will periodically review face covering procedures based on the COVID-19 climate,” Lantrip said. “We will return to an optional face covering procedure when the current surge diminishes. Our team will evaluate this in September.”
Quarantine considerations
Greenfield-Central has been hit hard by COVID-19 cases and close contacts as well. Superintendent Harold Olin said on Wednesday that the school district has had over 40 cases among students so far this year. He added 13 cases at the high school have led to over 200 close contacts, 151 of whom had to quarantine at home.
The school corporation updated its COVID-19 safety measures this week reminding parents of screening protocols the Indiana Department of Health first released in August 2020. If students have a fever, sore throat or one of several other COVID-like symptoms, they must stay home. They can return to school after symptoms have improved for 24 hours without medicine if they have a negative COVID-19 test result. Without a negative test, they can return in 10 days or after an alternate diagnosis for a health care provider.
Greenfield-Central is contemplating changing its quarantine policy. The school corporation currently follows the guideline of COVID-19 close contacts quarantining for 14 days. Guidelines also permit a return from quarantine on day 11 as long as they wear a mask and socially distance through day 14, and an even earlier return on day eight with a negative COVID-19 test result, with masking and social distancing through day 14. Mt. Vernon and Southern Hancock allow for the shorter quarantines, but Greenfield-Central and Eastern Hancock do not.
“I can assure you that our teachers and our principals want students back as soon as possible, because they learn best when they’re onsite,” Olin said. “…We are looking at what our best options are as far as bringing kids back sooner.”
The requirements necessary for the early ends to quarantines become logistically difficult, he continued, and become even more so as more students become involved.
“It’s easy to accomplish when you’re talking about a few kids,” Olin said. “One hundred and sixty kids — if half come back on days eight through 14, what do you do with 80 kids in terms of creating a 6-foot diameter around them?”
Eastern Hancock had six COVID-19 cases as of Thursday afternoon, with around 60 close contacts out of school, said superintendent George Philhower.
“We were hopeful that we could return to normal, but we will do our best under whatever circumstances we find ourselves,” Philhower said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”By the numbers” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
COVID-19 data through early Friday, Aug. 20
Hancock County
- 654 new tests administered (June 17-Aug. 19)
- 64 new cases (Aug. 19)
- 8% seven-day (Aug. 7-13) positivity rate all tests, 8.6% cumulative rate
- 0 new deaths
- 126,712 total tests administered
- 9,352 total cases
- 12.5% seven-day (Aug. 7-13) positivity rate unique individuals, 19.1% cumulative rate
- 153 total deaths
- 39,833 age 12+ fully vaccinated (59.9% of that population)
Indiana
- 47,629 new tests administered (April 17, 2020-Aug. 19, 2021), 13,082 new individuals tested
- 4,120 new cases (Aug. 19)
- 10.6% seven-day (Aug. 7-13) positivity rate, 8.4% cumulative rate
- 14 new deaths (Aug. 17-19)
- 11,810,025 total tests administered
- 3,798,842 total individuals tested
- 817,149 total cases
- 19.1% seven-day (Aug. 7-13) positivity rate unique individuals, 21.5% cumulative rate
- 13,797 total deaths
- 431 total probable deaths
- 58.9% ICU beds in use – non-COVID
- 20.9% ICU beds in use – COVID
- 20.3% ICU beds available
- 18.9% ventilators in use – non-COVID
- 6.9% ventilators in use – COVID
- 74.2% ventilators available
- Hospital census: 1,744 total COVID-19 patients (1,493 confirmed, 251 under investigation)
- Delta variant: 54.7% of samples in August
- Not variant of concern: 44.1% of samples in August
- Gamma variant: 0.9% of samples in August
- Alpha variant: 0.3% of samples in August
- 104 total confirmed cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children
- 3,038,067 age 12+ fully vaccinated (51.8% of that population)
- 9,922 breakthrough cases (0.327% of fully vaccinated individuals)
- 272 breakthrough hospitalizations (0.009% of fully vaccinated individuals)
- 83 breakthrough deaths (0.003% of fully vaccinated individuals)
Source: Indiana Department of Health
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