Beaufort Co. schools recorded 100+ new student, staff COVID cases over winter break
Beaufort County School District reported 79 new COVID-19 cases among students and staff on Monday, which marked the district’s first day back from winter break and the first day of full-time, in-person instruction in schools since March.
Monday’s report covered only the past five days — the back half of winter break, from Dec. 30 to Monday. All in all, the district reported 117 new cases between the last day of classes before winter break and the first day back in school.
The district has reported 355 cases between Sept. 28 and Monday, a span of 14 1/2 weeks. The winter break cases represent a 48.5% increase in total cases over the two-week period since Dec. 22, when the district reported 241 total cases.
According to district spokesperson Candace Bruder, some of the new cases in Monday’s report were cases from previous weeks due to a backlog in case reporting at South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control.
But “the majority” of the 117 reported were new cases recorded over winter break, she said. Of those cases, 75 were reported on time in the district’s weekly dashboard totals.
The district has about 24,000 students and staff combined. About 1.45% of the district’s total student and staff population have contracted the virus since Sept. 28, compared to 5.2% of the county’s total population since March.
“In schools we have not been seeing the spread,” Superintendent Frank Rodriguez said Monday. “As long as it remains low within our schools, we want to provide as much face-to-face instruction as we can, because we know that’s what’s best for our students.”
May River High School in Bluffton has by far the highest number of cases reported since Sept. 28 in the district, with 62. It’s followed by 38 cases reported at Bluffton High School and 35 at Hilton Head Island High School.
The district also told at least 167 students and coaching staff to quarantine over winter break. The quarantines were due to at least six student-athletes across five schools testing positive for COVID-19, and all but one ended before Monday.
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.
Battery Creek High hadn’t had a widespread quarantine before this instance, but principal Chad Cox said Monday that “we knew it was inevitable at some point,” and the school had prepared for the possibility.
“I was like man, we made it this far,” he said. “We know that quarantines are going to be part of coming back to school, and we’ve just got to accept that.”
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 12:28 PM.