The new year has meant renewed challenges for schools as the Omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads through communities, straining resources and, in some cases, shutting down on-campus learning.
West Point went to virtual-only classes on Jan. 13, after 16 teachers and 275 students — 112 of them from Fifth Street Elementary — went into quarantine after exposure to the virus. West Point will resume regular classes Monday.
At Annunciation Catholic School in Columbus, officials closed its campus on Wednesday for the rest of the week after moving some classes to virtual-only.
“We had been following the guidelines of the Catholic diocese in Jackson, which says that when we have three positive cases in a group or classroom, we have to transition to distance learning,” said Annunciation Principal Joni House. “That’s what we had been doing, but by Tuesday fewer than half of our students were on campus, and we made the decision to transition to distance learning for all students at that point.”
House said the school used the rest of the week to clean and sanitize and will resume on-campus classes Monday.
But the effects of Omicron, the most transmissible of the COVID-19 variants so far, are being felt at schools who have maintained in-person classes.
“Last week, we had 121 positive cases among students and 22 positive faculty members, including one (information technology) department member,” said Columbus Municipal School District Superintendent Cherie Labat. “That’s out of 300 teachers on staff. We’ve kept our mask mandate and we have testing, which has helped us keep those numbers down.”
Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District reported 143 student cases, with another 289 students in quarantine for COVID exposure. That’s on top of 35 positive cases among teachers and another 27 in quarantine for exposure.
“COVID continues to create challenges for our students, staff and families,” SOCSD Superintendent Eddie Peasant said. “Our teachers and staff at each campus adjust their schedules to combine classes or cover classes for colleagues when substitutes are not available. Our bus drivers do the same.”
Lowndes County School District Superintendent Sam Allison said teacher absenteeism for the week was just more than 11 percent, with a high daily absentee rate at 14 percent.
“That’s out of approximately 630 staff,” Allison wrote in a text message to The Dispatch. “Of course not all absences are COVID-relationed, but COVID is definitely the cause of the high number. So many people went above and beyond to make sure our students were served.”
Allison did not share updated student case numbers for this week but said it was the “highest week so far.” The Mississippi Department of Health website shows LCSD reported 143 student cases and another 289 in quarantine between Jan. 10 and 14.
Noxubee County School District Superintendent Washington Cole said about 10 percent of the district’s students and teachers have tested positive or been exposed to the virus since classes resumed earlier this month.
“We’re still in class and operations are about as normal as you could expect them to be,” Cole said. “But that’s not to say it hasn’t been a challenge because it has. It’s put a strain on our staff and with substitute teachers and substitute bus drivers. Those people are hard to find even under normal circumstances, but when teachers are out with COVID, the need for those substitutes is even greater. So far, we’ve covered all our classes and haven’t had to alter bus routes. But we know that could change.”
Peasant hopes his district can weather the storm without forcing schools to go to distance learning or a hybrid schedule, an option the Mississippi Department of Education authorized earlier last week in response to increased COVID cases.
“In August, as we navigated through the Delta variant, we saw case numbers begin to decline after a few weeks,” Peasant said. “We are hopeful that will be the case with the Omicron variant as well.”
Cole, meanwhile, said the school district is at the mercy of the community’s response to the variant.
“It’s not a school problem. It’s a community problem,” Cole said. “If people would make the effort to be as safe as they can out in the community, you would see the results in our schools and our COVID numbers would reflect that. That’s the message we want to get out to the community.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.