Whitfield County Schools sends high schools to holiday break early due to COVID-19

Published 11:55 am Friday, December 18, 2020

Due to an increasingly high number of quarantines among students and staff at the high school level, Whitfield County Schools high schools started their holiday break Wednesday, instead of today as scheduled.

“Our positive (COVID-19) tests are increasing, too, but at a relatively low rate, especially compared to spread in the community,” said Superintendent Judy Gilreath. “A majority of those quarantined never develop the virus, but we still have to quarantine them out of an abundance of caution.”

On Monday, “we had 148 staff members out (due to quarantine), and it’s difficult to get substitutes,” Gilreath said. “We also had 20 bus drivers out and 15% of food services (staff), so it’s just getting unmanageable.” 

Whitfield County Schools maintains a week-to-week total of positive cases on its website, wcsga.net.

The most recent numbers (for the week of Dec. 6) show 59 students have tested positive — 34 of the 59 were in three of the system’s four high schools, 10 at Coahulla Creek, 15 at Northwest Whitfield and nine at Southeast Whitfield — while 18 staff members have tested positive.

As of Thursday afternoon, Whitfield County had 9,424 confirmed cases of COVID-19, more than all but nine counties in the state; 460 hospitalizations attributed to COVID-19; and 106 deaths, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health. Whitfield County’s rate of 9,003 cases per 100,000 is third highest among Georgia counties.

Activities like sports will continue on a school to school and team to team basis, Gilreath said.

“Some teams may be fine, (while) others may not be able to play at all.”

As has been the case in Dalton Public Schools and Murray County Schools, the vast majority of positive cases for students and staff have been traced to activities outside of the school setting, she said. Then, “they bring it into” schools. 

Elementary and middle schools will continue learning as scheduled through today’s planned half-day, Gilreath said, noting, “Elementary and middle schools are fine.” 

Only 10% of Whitfield County Schools students are enrolled in full-time virtual learning, as most who started this year that way have transitioned to classroom instruction, according to Karey Williams, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning.

Roughly 30% of Whitfield County Schools’ approximately 13,000 students opted for virtual learning to open this academic year, but now only 6% of elementary learners are doing school from home, while 8% of middle school students and 17% of high school students are continuing distance learning. 

Keeping younger learners in schools, rather than distance learning, is especially critical, according to Williams.

Digital learning “is so hard for parents to monitor, (and) it’s not easy to get through online classes.” 

Students, except for those who have chosen complete virtual learning, will return to school after holiday break on Jan. 6, instead of the scheduled Jan. 4, Gilreath said.

Teachers will still return to work Jan. 4 as planned. 

Whether certain grades or schools will go to more distance learning in 2021 will depend on how many teachers and students have to be home due to quarantine. 

“There’s no set number, because all the cases may be at one school, and I’m not going to close all the schools if numbers (at certain schools) are fine,” Gilreath said. “It may be that we have to close one school (to in-person) instruction for awhile.”