Houston County schools returned to classrooms earlier than most. How has that worked?

The Houston County School District was one of the first in Middle Georgia to return to in-person classes, starting in early August while some districts waited months to return.

The decision sparked concerns from some teachers and parents, who were worried about the spread of COVID-19. According to superintendent Mark Scott, the district implemented a series of safety measures designed to reduce coronavirus spread and keep students in classrooms over the past seven months.

“I think we’ve done a good job with the protocols that are in place. When you go into the schools, you see the students are complying with the rules; they want to be in school, they want to be safe,” Scott said. “We have about 83% of our students in face-to-face instruction. We’ve reviewed our protocols each time new guidance comes out and any information we get, we certainly implement it.”

Adjusting for infection rates in local communities is key as well, Scott said.

“We have 39 school campuses, so we not only have to look at the district data, we have to look at each of these schools,” he said. “We have three municipalities in the county, so what’s happening in Perry may not be happening in Centerville. You have to take that into consideration.”

Safety guidelines

Here are some of the coronavirus protocols the Houston County School District implemented:

• The district encourages students, staff and teachers to wash their hands regularly, wear masks and socially distance where possible.
• The district purchased physical barriers to separate students in classrooms and uses directional signs in hallways to keep groups of students, known as cohorts, separate.
• Elementary schools limit exposure between groups at lunchtime and used seating charts for classrooms and buses.
• When a student or staff member tests positive, the district gathers information about the individual’s movements and provides it to the North Central Health district epidemiologist Amber Erickson so NCHD can perform contact tracing, as well as exposed individuals so they can quarantine.
• School and health officials discuss an operational summary collected weekly from school staff that includes data on community COVID-19 spread to help interpret the data and make informed decisions.
• Students who were exposed to COVID-19 can now test after five days and return to school on the seventh day, under new CDC guidelines.

Dealing with COVID-19 challenges

Houston County School District Teacher of the Year Crystal Tucker said teachers and students have done a tremendous job working together to overcome coronavirus-imposed obstacles. Tucker teaches fourth grade math and science at Northside Elementary School.

“I always tell [students] ‘Together, we can conquer anything,’” she said. “I have to keep them motivated [to follow the guidelines], because they want to be together, they want to have small groups, they want to play together. But at the end of the day, we have their best interests in mind and we want them to be safe. We want their families to be safe when they go home.”

District leaders said they use an assessment to identify students learning virtually who may need additional help or have experiencing learning loss over the past year, so educators can provide tools to help those students.

“We’re seeing tremendous growth in our students on all of our assessments; I truly believe our students are warriors, they have adjusted to this amazingly,” Tucker said. “We have families who are very supportive of us being in-person with our students.”

While teachers transitioned from virtual teaching back to in-person instruction easily, finding substitute teachers has been a challenge, Scott said. Most substitute teachers are retired teachers and are at a higher COVID risk, so district teachers have had to fill in and lose planning periods.

“We know that change is inevitable; how we do things today may change next week,” Tucker said. “So, of course, we can never get comfortable with our procedures. One of the greatest things about educators is we are some of the most flexible people on the planet.”