Sun Staff
Several Wythe County basketball teams will be waiting a little longer for the already-shortened season to start.
School Superintendent Dr. Scott Jefferies told School Board members on Monday that several basketball teams – including ones at George Wythe and Fort Chiswell – have had to postpone or cancel games after being quarantined from possible COVID-19 exposure.
The Monday gathering on Zoom was a special called meeting set up in December to assess a return to in-person classes and extra-curricular activities. The board at its Dec. 10, 2020, meeting affirmed the administration’s decision to remain virtual until further notice and committed to further discuss the matter and to get a status check after the first of the year.
Jefferies told the board that health officials have warned of a coming spike after the holiday season and recommended that schools remain virtual through at least Jan. 15 – the end of the first semester. The school’s regularly scheduled January meeting is the day before. Jefferies said the extra couple weeks would provide more data to members and might better inform decisions.
The board ultimately voted 5-1 to keep virtual school in session through at least Jan. 15. Chairman Chalmer Frye was absent. Don Goode was the lone dissenting vote.
Before casting his “no” vote, Goode urged fellow board members to make an effort to get back in the classroom, pointing out that Standards of Learning tests are slated to start next week.
“I’m not looking forward to seeing the results of the SOLs,” Goode said. “… Student have not been good learners throughout this whole process.”
Goode, who is a father to high-school students, said kids “deserve to be in school, and they need it.”
Board members also earlier wrangled over finer points. Ann Manley asked if the school system would still provide for an all-virtual learning option. Jefferies said that it would. Manley and Tonya Freeman inquired about the time teachers may need to move from all-virtual to a hybrid model of instruction.
The last time the schools moved from all-virtual to some in-person classes, the transition took three weeks with two weeks’ notice. Jefferies said he didn’t foresee needing that long but recommended that the board not hit the switch overnight. Practically speaking, Jefferies said, three or four days of advanced notice should suffice.
Monday, Jan. 18, is already a teacher workday, so board members on Jan. 15 will be considering a Jan. 19 return to the classroom.
Vice Chair Peggy Wagy cautioned that the board will need to look at numbers on Jan. 15.
Jefferies warned that the Virginia Health Department anticipates an increase in COVID-positive numbers over the next two weeks, making things tougher to track and to get accurate information.
Lee Johnson pointed out that the latest metrics from the Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has Wythe County on the list of localities at the highest risk for school transmission. Jefferies noted that has been Wythe County’s status for the past eight or nine weeks and that as of Monday morning the entire state had been designated as being the highest risk for transmitting the coronavirus in school.
To ease the coming spike, Ann Manley suggested that the school system allow teachers to work from home if they want to.
Jefferies said he wouldn’t recommend that action, adding if a teacher is sick the schools are making workplace accommodations and adding that he would like to have teachers in the classrooms. The board bucked his recommendation, voting 4-2, with Goode and Stephen Sage dissenting, to allow teacher to work from home over the next two weeks.
Board members waded into sports and extra-curricular activities, too.
In December, when the county moved to all-virtual classes on the recommendation of the Mount Rogers Health District, it also called off all sports and activities. The administration made the decision at the beginning of the month and the board affirmed it by vote on Dec. 10. At the time, Jefferies said it would remain in place until the health district was able to contact trace and ensure student safety. At the end of November, the Mount Rogers Health District asked all schools in the region to close “because people will not take the necessary steps to stop disease transmission,” according to a press release from director Dr. Karen Shelton.
There are eight school districts in the Mount Rogers district. Six shuttered and two – Grayson and Bristol – remained open. One-by-one, though, schools in the district eased up on the restrictions and cleared a pathway to a return to sports, if not in-person classes. Galax was the last district to give the OK to sports.
Wythe County’s board still has not affirmed the decision; however, games are scheduled and in-person practices have been ongoing since after Christmas.
Jefferies on Monday noted that athletes began virtual training session before Christmas and were face-to-face after. He also pointed out that extra-curricular activities are options and require families to give permission for participation.
Johnson questioned the timeline, saying that practice started last Monday and by Wednesday there were already three teams in the county sidelined by COVID exposure.
Wagy asked if the quarantine would mess up the schedule since the Virginia High School League requires that teams have eight practices before the first contest.
Jefferies said athletic directors are “putting schedules together in pencil” meaning they are subject to change and a lot of it. The superintendent also said that that Health Department was making recommendations on the length of quarantines, saying there is no definitive directive on how long players have to sit out.
Sage said he thought that Shelton had been clear about a 14-day quarantine. Jefferies said a 10-day quarantine had been communicated from the department to the teams in question.
According to the Virginia Department of Health’s quarantine and isolation calculator, a 10-day quarantine from the date symptoms began must be followed after a positive test. To end isolation, the guidance says, there must be also be at least a 24-hour span with no fever and an improvement in other symptoms.
When a positive test comes with no symptoms, the Health Department mandates 10 days of isolation from the date of the positive test.
A 14-day quarantine is called for if a person has been identified as being in close contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19. Those living in the same household as someone with COVID should quarantine during the exposure and an additional 14 days after, according to the department.
Jefferies told the board that there is no requirement for a person to show a negative test to return to school or athletics.
“Why are we not requiring that?” Johnson asked.
“It’s never been,” Jefferies said.
Sage pointed out that the advice of the Health Department to close schools hasn’t been changed when Jefferies said he couldn’t speak for the department.
“It’s pretty obvious,” he said. “… They said don’t do it.”
Jefferies said that the schools would be alerted and would alert other schools if a game with another system resulted in virus exposure.
“Somehow, some way it will be communicated,” he said, noting that one school went back to look at game tape to trace contacts. He added that the county and other surrounding could very well find themselves pausing activities because of exposure.
Freeman expressed concerns about the lasting effects of COVID that sometimes aren’t seen until athletes are back on the field, citing cardiac and renal issues that appear to be connected to earlier diagnoses.
“I’d be shocked if there wasn’t concern (from the Health Department),” Jefferies said.
The issue was focused on a national news story concerning a University of Florida basketball player who a few weeks ago collapsed on the floor, suffering from acute myocarditis – or heart inflammation. The Gainesville Sun reported that Keyontae Johnson, who had been diagnosed with COVID over the summer, fell to the floor, unresponsive, and was put in a medically induced coma in mid-December.
The 21-year-old Johnson, who is a Virginia native and played his senior year of high school ball at Grayson County’s Oak Hill Academy, returned to the bend this week, according to various news reports. He’s expected to be out for the season after being diagnosed with inflammation that is possibly related to COVID-19.
Freeman also inquired about the higher rate of sub-standard grades that came with the first online school session. Jefferies said he has confidence in his teachers and staff members and that they are making a lot of progress on the grades.
Wagy noted that several teachers have been calling parents and have even made home visits to ensure passing grades.
“Our teachers are simply amazing,” she said.
The meeting kicked off with one public comment – from Becky Irvin of Wytheville – who questioned why students were allowed to play sports but not be in the classroom learning. She said that rules and regulations governing cosmetology students are ridiculous and questioned why washing hair is less safe than wrestling practice.
“Kids need to be back in school,” she said. “Students need normalcy back in their lives.”
