A Greene County school district has had to scrap their plans to return to in-person learning in a few weeks because of a giant spike in COVID-19.
North Greene Superintendent Mark Scott called parents and made the announcement last night that the district will be returning to e-learning until local outbreaks can drop the amount of positive cases: “Most of these [recent] cases that came up in Greene County have been in the northern portion of the county, if you look at the Greene County Health Department’s webpage – it breaks the cases down not specifically by school district but towns within the school districts. Right now, 87% of the cases in Greene County are in North Greene School District – White Hall, Roodhouse, and the surrounding areas. 19 positive cases stem from events just yesterday in the North Greene area. With that many positive cases and with the amount of extracurricular activities’ kids quarantined and now we’re starting to get multiple staff members and other family members and students quarantined because they’ve been around positive cases and with the virus on the rise; we consulted with the Greene County Health Department, our school board, our transition return to learning team and committee. They are all in agreement right now is not the time to come back to school.”
Scott says that the district is going to re-evaluate the number of cases in the North Greene area in mid-September and make a determination if they can open the school at that time.
Scott says that all extracurricular activities for the school are also postponed or on hold until the number of cases come down: “Everything at this time at North Greene is cancelled or postponed – all extracurriculars. Even though the Illinois State Board of Education said they wanted students to participate in extracurricular activities if at all possible, like I said, in consulting with the Greene County Health Department, we don’t feel it is safe to have those activities at all right now.”
Scott says that the recent spike in numbers is proof that the COVID-19 situation can turn things around quickly and that school districts will have to do their best to navigate the situation and adjust accordingly.