If today isn’t another snow day, Monongalia County’s sixth-graders will roll up their sleeves for their second COVID shot.
“That’s if the weather cooperates,” Deputy Schools Superintendent Donna Talerico told Board of Education members during a meeting Tuesday night.
The district of late has been dealing with cold, snow and ice, on top of the contagion.
Last week was weather-shortened with two snow days and an “Arctic Academy Day” – whereby students carried out their learning at home, via their district-issued Chromebook computers.
Tuesday was another snow day.
But while West Virginia is known for its ever-shifting weather patterns, COVID, like the worst nor’easter, continues to dig in and get stronger.
The omicron variant of the virus has now answered roll in all 55 school districts in the Mountain State.
While omicron appears to be less severe, it’s still highly infectious.
And it can still deliver enough of an over-the-counter wallop to put you in bed or on the couch for a couple of days.
Four schools in Kanawha County, in fact, have had to go remote in recent days due to absences wrought by the newest surge.
And two weeks ago in Mon, nearly 800 students, either by infection or quarantining, were knocked out of school for several days, also.
“The numbers are the highest they’ve ever been,” Eddie Campbell Jr., told the board.
Campbell, the district’s superintendent of schools, said students weren’t the only ones absent amid those resounding numbers to end that week of Jan. 14.
More than 80 employees were also out, either by positive diagnoses or workplace contact with their colleagues.
That roll call of the temporarily infirm, Campbell said, went from teachers to classroom aides, to bus drivers and cafeteria workers.
“It was overwhelming,” he said.
Part of it, he said, is because the district is operating under the original pandemic protocols set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And those run in tandem with county health department protocols, Campbell said.
“We’re asking our parents to be patient,” he said.
“Everything’s a little more stringent,” he said, referring to the stricter guidelines on quarantines and isolating, “but that’s why we’ve been able to keep our doors open.”
Positive cases aren’t the only things trending in the district, though: Talerico reported marked test school improvements of 13% in math and 11% in reading, which were recently compiled.
“We know we’re in the cloud of COVID,” she said, “but we’re still successfully educating students.”
That’s because students, Campbell echoed, in a nod to his coaching days, are showing up.
“These kids come to school every day, ready to learn,” the superintendent said.
“They’re resilient – more so than us. We’re all in crisis-mode, and they’re just happy to be here.”
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