Habersham students have completed their third day of virtual learning, and at Monday’s Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Matthew Cooper expressed a positive outlook towards the temporary use of online classes due to surging COVID-19 cases among Habersham School’s staff members.
“It doesn’t look as good as students sitting in classrooms. We can all agree on that,” Cooper said. “There’s simply no substitute for our students being in the classroom at school, and there never will be. But under the circumstances, our teachers, our administrators, and our schools are doing an exceptional job. I have received a lot of positive feedback over these first three days about how things are going. Our schools were ready.”
Cooper says the Habersham Board of Education’s goal is to return to in-person learning, and that he is “optimistic” that schools will re-open on Jan. 25. “I’m very optimistic,” Cooper said. “I don’t want anybody thinking that we want to extend learning from home. We do not. It will come down to the availability of our staff and we’ll see this week and next how this surge affects us.”
According to the Habersham Schools Director of Nursing, Crystal Holcomb, several school system employees are set to come out of the COVID-19 quarantine period this week and next week. Should faculty and staff case numbers not lower significantly, Cooper says parents will know about any changes to the school system’s virtual learning plan by next Friday.
The BOE has plans to change how they report COVID-19 numbers among their faculty and staff, instead of reporting only positive cases, they will be reporting the number of employees who are currently unable to work due to COVID-19 related issues. These could include having COVID-19, quarantine, COVID-19 exposure, and awaiting COVID-19 test results. As of right now, 40 members of the Habersham Schools staff are out due to COVID-19.
“We’re in a good position,” Cooper said. “I’m very optimistic that students will be back in school on the 25th. We must remain hopeful and prayerful.”
You can watch the full meeting here.
