Pickens County Schools is pushing back the start of school two weeks due to coronavirus exposures among staff at one of its elementary schools. The 4,400-student district in north Georgia was due to resume in-person classes on Monday, but now plans to open Aug. 17
In a video message Wednesday evening, Pickens Superintendent Rick Townsend said the exposure occurred at Hill City Elementary School, one of six district schools.
”We’ve had multiple exposures, a real outbreak at Hill City. We could not open up Hill City on time on Monday,” said Townsend. “The entire staff’s going get tested. I’ll be tested myself. I was there, spoke to the staff on Monday.”
“It is no one’s fault, in particular. It happened,” the school chief said. “We were a full go for next Monday. Now, we’re not. We want to make sure everyone understands our staff safety, student safety, is of utmost importance. That is No. 1. That is the reason we are making this decision We could not open up Hill City no matter what on Monday. We have to wait until testing gets back for that to happen.”
All open house activities, extracurricular activities, and device distributions are postponed. School staffs will be working from home for the next seven work days.
Townsend said Pickens has seen a large increase in positive COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks, and the local hospital system was running out of beds. He said he will give an update next week.
While most metro districts are beginning the school year with virtual classes because of surging COVID-19 infections, school districts outside the Atlanta area and in rural Georgia are planning to open for in-person classes.
But there are challenges. Also Wednesday night, the superintendent in Dooly County posted this message to parents:
Dear Dooly County Parents,
A school staff member has recently tested positive for coronavirus, and we are therefore delaying the first day of school for students until August 19th. The employee was in close contact with other staff members a week ago. Since then, all staff have received regular temperature checks and are doing well. If your children have been exposed to coaches, we are confident they are fine. As a precaution, you may want to have your child seen by your pediatrician. Again, we are confident at this time that our faculty and staff are in good health, so any students who have been in close proximity should be okay. If anything changes or we receive new information, we will definitely contact you. Thank you as we work through these unique circumstances. Please take care and stay safe.
Respectfully,
Dr. Craig Lockhart
PROUD Superintendent
Dooly County Schools
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