Despite rising local case numbers, Christian County schools — like some others in the state — have opted to continue in-person learning. It’s a position that local school officials this week maintained.
On the health department's recommendation, the district has asked the players to quarantine after exposure to a Calloway County High School football player who has since tested positive.
As the county's coronavirus incidence rate reached the "critical" level on a state grid, local health officials asked schools and other groups to curtail activities.
The state's color-coded system calls for schools in red zones to move to all-virtual instruction and suspend sports and other extracurricular activities until they can get to the yellow zone, meaning they have 1 to 10 cases per 100,000 people daily.
County Health Director Kayla Bebout advised the school district to follow the guidance for remote instruction when the county's incidence rate went into the critical red level as defined by the state Department of Education and the Department of Public Health.
Sixty-eight students and staff combined had to quarantine, according to the district report, but only three of those cases were a result of being a close contact to someone with COVID-19 in a school setting, according to the superintendent.
The guidance asks school districts to look at two things to determine if they should be holding in-person classes: the statewide positivity percentage and the prevalence of the coronavirus in their community.
Nearly one-third of the district’s 8,710 students are already enrolled in the Virtual Learning Academy or signed up this week to opt out of in-person instruction.
Superintendent Chris Bentzel will propose students return to the classroom soon after Labor Day, with the exception of those enrolled in the Virtual Learning Academy.
