Beaufort Co. schools surpass 250 COVID cases among students, staff over winter break
Beaufort County School District has reported 279 COVID-19 cases among students and staff since Sept. 28, up 38 from the 241 cases reported on Dec. 22 before winter break began.
Thirty-five of those new cases were reported between Dec. 22 and Dec. 27, and three were reported between Dec. 28 and Wednesday.
The new number, reported Wednesday, is the last update to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard before winter break ends on Monday.
After that, the district will resume its daily COVID-19 case updates, which include in-person and virtual students and staff.
The Wednesday afternoon report came just hours after South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control announced that Beaufort County had surpassed 100 reported COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
The district also told at least 167 students and coaching staff to quarantine over winter break. The quarantines, some of which ended this week, were due to at least six student-athletes across five schools testing positive for COVID-19.
Five of the district’s six high schools — May River, Battery Creek, Bluffton, Beaufort and Whale Branch Early College — and Lady’s Island Middle School were affected.
The district did not cancel any sports events for teams unaffected by these quarantines, spokesperson Candace Bruder said Dec. 18.
When students return to schools on Monday, the district will begin offering five days a week of in-person classes for the first time since schools shut down in March.
About 69% of the district’s 21,000-plus students will attend these classes, while the rest will remain online-only.
The shift from the district’s previous model, which saw hybrid students attending classes in-person two days a week and online for the remainder, will lead to less social distancing in schools.
“To say that every classroom is going to be six feet apart isn’t realistic, but it’ll be close,” Hilton Head Island High School principal Steve Schidrich said Dec. 17.
When possible, larger classes will be moved to bigger rooms like the theater or media center, Schidrich said; all students will have barriers at their desks and seating charts to help the school identify close contacts if someone tests positive.
The district will also utilize seating charts in classrooms and on buses to aid in contact tracing when people test positive for COVID-19, Bruder said.
Beaufort County School District will continue to require masks on campus and conduct daily temperature checks in January.
Buses will continue to run at 67% capacity or lower.
The district will not provide rapid COVID-19 tests at schools, a state-offered plan that deputy superintendent Duke Bradley said could encourage sick students to come to school to get tested.