Franklin BOE to Consider Easing COVID Mitigation Procedures

The Franklin County Board of Education will meet next week for a leadership meeting and one of the topics on their agenda for discussion will be whether to revise the current COVID mitigation plan.

On August 23, when the school system again began tracking COVID numbers, over 700 students were quarantined at home for possible exposure to COVID-19, and 62 had tested positive.

Last month, School Superintendent Chris Forrer put a video on the school system Facebook page announcing increased COVID mitigation efforts.

Those efforts included providing masks in more locations in each school for those students who want one, and changes in quarantine procedures for vaccinated and unvaccinated students and staff.

At the time, Forrer said he would not mandate vaccinations but he did put a monetary incentive in place for employees to get the COVID vaccine, and he told WLHR News later that many employees took advantage of that.

However since then, the COVID numbers have continued to decline and at the Board of Education meeting this week, Forrer said the Board will consider easing some of the COVID protocols currently in place.

As of Tuesday, only 4 students in the entire student population of over 3,500 had tested positive for COVID, 34 students were quarantined at home for possible exposure to the virus, and six students were on modified quarantine for possible exposure.

Additionally, the latest numbers showed there are no positive cases of COVID-19 among teachers and staff and only two school system employees were quarantined for possible exposure.