Monongalia County students will be able to roll up their sleeves for their COVID boosters as early as next month, the district said.
Donna Talerico, Mon’s deputy superintendent of schools, told Board of Education members during their meeting Tuesday night that schedules for the clinics are still being finalized.
“The clinics will be for our students 12 to 18,” Talerico said, while expressing hope that students are already lining up for boosters at other medical venues. “We’re looking at the first part of February.”
The district, meanwhile, ended last week with an expected spike in COVID cases across the system. Thank all those gatherings over the holidays, Talerico said.
It was the first week back from Christmas break, and a total of 116 students presented with positive diagnoses, with another 281 of their classmates in quarantine due to contact tracing.
Among staffers of the district, 39 positive cases were reported, with 52 other employees on quarantine, also because of possible exposure to the contagion.
Most of the cases, the deputy superintendent said, are of the omicron variant, which, while highly infectious, generally presents in a much milder form than its delta cousin.
In the meantime, she said, the district is having regular consultations with Dr. Lee B. Smith, the medical director of Mon’s health department.
There’s that, she said, and the district’s regimented mandate of masking and other pandemic protocols – measures, Talerico said, that now have a history of doing what they’re supposed to do.
“We haven’t had to close any schools, as we continue to watch this, day in and day out,” she said.
At the start of the meeting, board members took the time to honor a longtime educator who spent his professional life with a watchful eye over the proceedings of Mon schools.
Clarence Harvey Jr. had a full career as a teacher and administrator before running for BOE.
Harvey, who died last month at the age of 95, decided not to seek reelection to the board four years ago.
The “moment of silence” designated on the agenda for him – was anything but.
That’s because Nancy Walker, Mike Kelly and Ron Lytle couldn’t stop talking about him.
The trio served several terms with Harvey on BOE.
Kelly, in fact, once ran unsuccessfully against him.
“Then, he apologized for beating me,” Kelly said, chuckling.
“He was an encyclopedia of Mon County schools,” the once-vanquished opponent-turned-colleague said.
“When I did get on the board and we’d discuss something, I’d ask, ‘Dr. Harvey, have we ever tried this before?’ and he’d say, ‘Well, Mike, actually we did, in 1967’ – or 1968 or 1969, or whenever.”
Walker, the current BOE president, said Harvey, who was first elected in 1984 not long after his retirement, carried a tenure of positive change.
“He contributed to a lot of what’s good in Monongalia County schools,” she said.
Lytle pointed to Harvey’s obituary, which was understated – like the man himself, he said.
“There’s a line that said, ‘He was a teacher,’ and that was true. He taught me how to be a board member. And when he spoke up, you listened.”
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