Blair Community Schools saw one of its best weeks related to the coronavirus pandemic, Supt. Randy Gilson reported Monday during the Board of Education's regular meeting.
On Monday, the district had just 32 students and staff members in quarantine — 26 of those were close contacts, while five students and one staff member were quarantined due to positive tests.
“That sounds like a lot, but we've been in the 160s and in the hundreds for a long, long time,” Gilson said.
Since the beginning of the school year, the district has had a total of 73 students and 33 staff members test positive for COVID-19. There were 599 students and 36 staff members that were identified as close contacts.
In one week, the district had as many as 157 students and staff members in quarantine and 27 positive cases.
Most of the quarantines were not due to exposure at school, but rather contact with parents, family members or siblings who tested positive.
The district began to see an increase in COVID-19 related issues in October. Gilson said Mondays are typically show the highest number of COVID-19 activity.
“From October on, we saw a pretty dramatic increase,” he said.
On Oct. 5, the district had eight new students and staff in quarantine. A month later, on Nov. 9, the district had 76.
Gilson attributed the increase into November to Halloween. However, the district didn't seen an increase after Thanksgiving.
“I want to thank our community for their support. Our community really took Thanksgiving serious. It's evident in our data,” he said. “Last week should have been our biggest week when you look at what happened after Halloween. I know it's hard to make the sacrifices everyone has made, but our community is the greatest community to live in. We thank them every day. Thank our students for all their hard work and making school a reality.”
Gilson also credited Angie Conety and Liz Nickerson, who work in the superintendent's office, for coordinating substitute teachers.
During the 13th week of school, only 74% of needed substitute teachers were filled. For the last four weeks, the district has had 100% filled.
“And some of those days we were needing 20 to 23 subs,” Gilson said. “I would never have imagined that we'd get this far and not really have a disrupted day.”
Gilson also thanked the bus drivers and custodians for their work.
“It seems like custodians haven't missed a day since last March. They've been the one group that worked nonstop to keep the buildings clean and disinfected,” he said.
No bus drivers have tested positive for COVID-19.
“I thought maybe we'd last a couple of weeks before we'd have to start canceling routes,” Gilson said.
Board members acknowledged the efforts made by administrators, teachers and students to keep the schools open.
“Thank you to the administrators having to deal with COVID and all the contact tracing and all the extra time you're having to put in. And to the teachers. It doesn't go unnoticed. I think it's important for all the work,” board member Amy Hansen said. “We've had a fantastic semester when it comes to COVID. Like you said I never would have imagined that we'd make it this far and be able to contain it.”
