By 5 p.m. Thursday, the ninth class day of the school year, the Bulloch County Schools district reported that 288 people, including students and employees, were in quarantine as a result of 25 known positive cases of COVID-19.
These confirmed cases and precautionary quarantines have occurred in connection with 11 of the 15 schools, as well as in the school system central office or its support services annex and in one after-school program. Actually, just eight of the schools had confirmed cases, but three additional schools had students, staff or faculty members in quarantine as a result of contacts elsewhere.
Since there are 5,920 students designated by their families for traditional, on-campus learning and approximately 1,500 on-campus school system employees, the 25 persons with confirmed cases are roughly 1/3 of 1% of a total in-school population of approximately 7,400.
But the 288 individuals having to quarantine make up approximately 3.9% of that same population.
“If a child or teacher has had direct exposure to an individual that tested positive, they will be contacted by the school and the Department of Public Health,” the school system notes on its real-time “COVID-19 Cases Reported” webpage maintained by Public Relations Director Hayley Greene.
She notes that a reported case does not mean that the individual was physically at a school or office on the day a case was reported.
Nor are individuals in quarantine necessarily ill. Most aren’t. Self-quarantine under Department of Public Health instructions is a precautionary measure for people who have come into direct contact, as defined by the DPH, with someone confirmed to have the novel coronavirus.
Those who show no symptoms will be able to return to school or work after 14 days. So, some of those quarantined last week could return to school beginning the middle of next week.
The school system reports a total enrollment of 10,697 students, but 4,777 were designated by their parents for at-home virtual instruction, via interactive online lesson platforms, when the school year began.
Students who were attending in-person but have to go home to quarantine while well are provided “distance learning,” continued lessons from their teachers via services such as Google Classroom.
As of 5 p.m. Thursday, these were the numbers of cases and quarantined individuals by location and date reported:
➤ Brooklet Elementary School
▲ No case; 1 quarantined on Aug. 26.
➤ Central Office & Annex Locations
▲ 3 cases; 3 quarantined Aug. 27.
➤ Langston Chapel Elementary School
▲ No case; 1 quarantined Aug. 27.
➤ Langston Chapel Middle School
▲ 1 case; 25 quarantined Aug. 19.
➤ Mattie Lively Elementary School
▲ 1 case; 7 quarantined Aug. 19.
▲ 1 case; 9 quarantined Aug. 27.
➤ Mattie Lively Elementary Afterschool Program
▲ 1 case; 1 quarantined Aug. 25.
➤ Nevils Elementary School
▲ 1 case; 19 quarantined Aug. 19.
➤ Portal Elementary School
▲ 1 case; 7 quarantined Aug. 19.
▲ 2 cases; 24 quarantined Aug. 20.
▲ 1 case; 14 quarantined Aug. 26.
▲ 1 case; 14 quarantined Aug. 27.
➤ Sallie Zetterower Elementary School
▲ 3 cases; 50 quarantined Aug. 26.
➤ Southeast Bulloch High School
▲ No cases; 2 quarantined Aug. 26.
▲ 1 case; 18 quarantined, also Aug. 26.
➤ Southeast Bulloch Middle School
▲ No cases; 2 quarantined Aug. 26.
➤ Statesboro High School
▲ 1 case; 16 quarantined Aug. 24.
▲ 1 case; 12 quarantined Aug. 27.
➤ Stilson Elementary School
▲ 2 cases; 29 quarantined Aug. 24.
▲ 1 case; 16 quarantined Aug. 26.
▲ 3 cases: 18 quarantined Aug. 27.
The Bulloch County Board of Education was holding its regular monthly work session at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the cafeteria near its offices in the William James Educational Complex. A “school start update” was the discussion topic, but no proposed changes were identified on the agenda.