LEDGER — Things have been running smoothly since Mitchell County Schools reopened under the state’s Plan A earlier this month, Superintendent Chad Calhoun said.
The school system started the Plan A reopening plan, which includes full in-person learning with continued options for virtual learning, on April 12, the first Monday after schools were on spring break.
As part of Plan A, Calhoun submits a weekly report on positive cases each Friday. The report breaks down the total number of COVID positives among both students and staff and also tracks whether or not cases are a result of community spread or school spread.
Calhoun said the school system currently has 11 positive cases, eight of which are at Mitchell High but he added that most of them are from families and the individuals aren’t displaying symptoms.
“Thankfully, they aren’t showing sickness,” Calhoun said. “It’s just the testing that’s positive.”
Calhoun touted the fact that the school system has not yet seen any school spread and no one is in the hospital with the virus.
Under recently updated guidance from the Toe River Health District, the quarantine period for those testing positive is down to 7-10 days, Calhoun added.
School nurses keep a running tally of all positive cases and keep a spreadsheet, which gets sent to Calhoun each week. From there, he transfers each school’s numbers into a master spreadsheet to submit as his weekly report.
Calhoun said he hopes things continue to run as smoothly for the rest of the academic year.
According to a Facebook post from the Mitchell County Health Department on April 19, there were 35 new positive cases in Mitchell County during the week of April 12-18.
“We have seen an uptick in our county but we feel like we are still doing a good job in our schools,” Calhoun said. “We’re still cleaning, wearing masks, distancing and everyone seems to be doing well. Hopefully, we’ll keep doing well.”