Jasper County high school returns to virtual classes this week after reported COVID cases
Ridgeland-Hardeeville High School returned to virtual learning Monday after more than two dozen students and faculty tested positive for COVID-19 just one week into the school year, Superintendent Rechel Anderson announced Sunday after a hectic week that included reorganizing the district’s transportation schedule.
“As schools opened this past week, we have seen a proportionately increasing number of test-positive COVID cases,” Anderson said, adding the district has already experienced more cases in the first week than it did the entire 2020-21 school year, which included virtual and hybrid learning.
In addition to the 24 documented infections, 96 others are in quarantine, including the entire football team, volleyball team and cheerleading squad. The football team missed its scheduled game against Estill High School last week and will not play Kingstree High School on Friday.
Virtual learning is scheduled for this week, and then the district will reassess.
“The pause will allow us to establish the true prevalence of infection in the school community, and to complete the contact tracing to identify other potential spreaders in and outside the school environment,” Anderson said.
Middle, elementary, and specialty schools are continuing to attend classes in person.
The switch to all-virtual comes as the school district is struggling with transportation issues. It is hiring and training new bus drivers after requiring previous drivers to reapply for their old jobs. That has led to the few bus drivers making multiple trips — and one parent complaining that children arrived home last week several hours after school ended.
Anderson said the decision to close the high school campus is not an emotional or administrative decision, but rather a “medical decision,” in an announcement video posted to the district Facebook page Sunday night.
Dr. James Gault, the district’s medical adviser, also spoke in the video and pushed Jasper County residents to get vaccinated.
“We’ve seen an alarming uptick of COVID infections in the school district in just the few days since the school opened,” he said, adding there will likely be additional cases once all of those on the sports teams in quarantine have been tested.
Jasper County has one of the highest COVID infection rates in the state paired with a relatively low vaccination rate, he said. In a two-week period the county had 255 confirmed cases, according to data from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, last updated Aug. 18.
A rapid-testing site has been reinstated at the county’s Ridgeland campus. Testing is available Monday through Friday during school hours.
Last school year, Ridgeland Elementary School closed in August after three staff members tested positive. The entire district eventually went all-virtual before returning to hybrid learning in late January.
Along with COVID, the school district dealt with a severe shortage of bus drivers last week. One parent posted on social media that the school bus didn’t drop her elementary-aged children at home until 5:55 p.m., after being released from school at 2:30 p.m. Her middle schooler, she said, was dropped off after 9:30 p.m.
In the post, she said the first driver told her they had to run two routes. The second driver said there were only two two drivers for both the middle and high school.
The Jasper County School District notified all bus drivers on June 4 that all bus driving positions would be eliminated by June 30, and employees who wished to return would have to reapply and reinterview for jobs.
Last week, the district announced that its elementary-age bus riders will be dismissed early the next six to 12 weeks while additional drivers are hired and trained. Elementary-age car riders, as well as all middle and high school students, will be dismissed at normal times.
“The school bus driver shortage is a statewide and national problem that we MUST work together to get through,” the district said.
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This story was originally published August 23, 2021 at 9:06 AM.
