September 18, 2021
By: Dwayne Page
The number of positive cases of COVID in the DeKalb County School District and those under quarantine continued to drop this week (9-13 to 9-17) from the previous week (9-7 to 9-10).
The district reported 23 positive cases on Monday, September 13 compared to 34 cases on Tuesday, September 7 and 113 on Monday, August 30. By Friday, September 17 the number of positive cases had ticked up to 27 but was still down from 39 on Friday, September 10 and 92 on Friday, September 3.
The number of those under quarantine on Monday, September 13 district-wide was 141, down from 173 on Tuesday, September 7 and 252 on Monday, August 30. By Friday, September 17 the number under quarantine had dropped to 123, down from 168 on Friday, September 10 and 271 on Friday, September 3.
According to Attendance Supervisor Joey Reeder, the DeKalb School District reported 23 positive cases on Monday, September 13 with DeKalb Middle School having the most at 11 followed by DCHS 5, Smithville Elementary School 4, Northside Elementary 2, and DeKalb West School with 1 case. By Friday, September 17 the number of positive cases district wide had gone up to 27 with DeKalb Middle School having 8 followed by DCHS and Smithville Elementary School each with 7, Northside Elementary 4, and DeKalb West School with 1.
The number of those under quarantine district-wide was at 141 on Monday, September 13. Smithville Elementary had the most under quarantine at 40 followed by Northside Elementary School at 28, DeKalb Middle School and DCHS each with 25, and DeKalb West School 23. By Friday, September 17, the number under quarantine district-wide had dropped to 123 with Smithville Elementary School again having the most at 38 followed by DeKalb Middle School 27, Northside Elementary 26, DCHS 17, and DeKalb West School with 15.
The district reported 13 absences among the staff on Friday, September 17 due to positive cases or quarantine. That’s down from 15 on Friday, September 10 and 27 on Friday, September 3. Smithville Elementary had the most at 6 followed by DCHS with 3, DeKalb Middle School 2, the transportation and cafeteria departments each with 1 and DeKalb West School and Northside Elementary School each with 0
According to Director of Schools Patrick Cripps, the schools are basically relying on parents to report cases of COVID.
“We are not checking temperatures at the door and we don’t get reports from the medical profession saying someone has COVID. We rely on parents to call and tell us. Once we have a positive case we send letters home and a remind app to notify parents that their child is in a classroom where there has been a positive COVID student with possible exposures. We tell the parents that they have the option to quarantine their child and we advise them to please look for signs and symptoms. If the child shows signs, we ask the parents to keep the child home for a few days. Because of the number of students, we are unable to contact trace,” said Director Cripps.
Although remote learning is not an option, students at home can keep up with their homework from packets sent home to them or via Google Classroom.