Yr in Review: COVID Affects School Systems as 2021 Begins

At the start of 2021, as students were to return to class after the winter break, COVID continued to affect how schools operated.

In early January, the Hart County Charter School System announced a delay in going back to in-school, face-to-face instruction until January 19.

Earlier, the School system closed school for the holiday break early because of a lack of teacher and staff due to COVID quarantines and diagnosis, which made it difficult to keep schools fully staffed.

Meantime, the Franklin County Charter School system asked parents to report if their child has tested positive for COVID-19 over the holiday break.

The school system continued to post their student and staff COVID numbers every Tuesday, which gradually went down over the spring but a new surge in COVID cases over the summer months forced the Board of Education to adopt stronger COVID mitigation measures as the new school year began.

School Superintendent Chris Forrer said in August they would not mandate students wear masks, but schools increased their sanitizing stations, enhanced cleaning and disinfecting at all facilities and frequently touched surfaces within the schools and all school buses were cleaned and disinfected as needed.

Students were encouraged to bring their own water bottles to class and masks were readily available to all students who wanted one.

Additionally, all students and employees who were sick were required to stay home and any employee or student who became sick or exhibited symptoms at school or work would be immediately isolated in a specific room and not allowed to remain at school.

But by the fall, Franklin County schools had reached a COVID milestone.

In late October, only 9 students were in quarantine at home for possible exposure to the virus and no students were under a modified quarantine.

Also, no teachers or staff had tested positive for COVID and none were quarantined for possible exposure to the virus.

“We’re absolutely thrilled. Zero is what we aimed for. It’s looking good. So, starting Monday we will start easing our mitigation strategies,” said School Superintendent Chris Forrer.

As of December 14 four students had tested positive for COVID and 58 were quarantined for exposure to the virus.