With high numbers of COVID positive students and the need to keep more than 1,100 students home to quarantine, Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools senior staff is asking parents and the community to do their part to keep children safe from COVID and in school.
Just in the first three days of school in Savannah-Chatham County public schools, more than 1,100 students have been determined as close contact to a positive COVID exposure.
Brock Elementary lists the most students in quarantine with 140. One student and one staff member are reported to be COVID positive and two staff members are quarantining.
The numbers also list 72 staff (but doesn't indicate whether teachers or support staff) who are quarantining.
The chart does not indicate if the exposures happened at school or elsewhere. The complete chart for COVID exposures at schools as of last Friday is available on the district website at sccpss.com and with this story at Savannahnow.com.
With 37,000 students now in the schools, Ann Levett, district superintendent, said Wednesday morning the high COVID numbers may be due to families engaging in vacations and other family gatherings within the few days before school began.
She added she was not pleased with the numbers, but also was not surprised.
"The 1,000 students who are now in quarantine represents only 3% of our student population," Levett said. "But what we're doing is staying the course. Our goal is to keep students engaged in learning."
She added her gratitude to parents who have chosen to have their eligible students vaccinated.
She reiterated the district's mitigation strategies to keep students and staff safe.
Associate Superintendent and district COO Vanessa Miller-Kaigler added the classroom air filters have been retrofitted with upgraded filters and filters are changed on a regular schedule; buses are cleaned and sanitized between runs and also randomly checked to make sure the cleaning and sanitizing is being done.
"We’re continuing to make sure we have accountability to ensure the safety of our students and staff," Miller-Kaigler said. She said the district has ample supplies of personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies and vendors are delivering those to the schools via a regular schedule.
Miller-Kaigler concurred with Levett in asking parents to do their part. "We ask our parents to be mindful if their children have symptoms, they stay home."
Lisa Wilson, the district's lead nurse, dovetailed with Levett and Miller-Kaigler about the district's robust mitigation strategies including contact tracing teams at each school and also at the district.
"If I could make one plea," Wilson said. "If students or staff are ill, or awaiting test results, it is imperative that you wait at home. We shoulder this weight together. We have to walk side by side, shouldering the responsibility."
Barbara Augsdorfer is the education and nonprofits reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Reach her at BAugsdorfer@gannett.com or on Twitter @Babs7983.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah-Chatham County has 1,100 students in quarantine; 230 test COVID positive the first week
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