The current attendance plan in Piedmont Schools is working, with students in grades seven through 12 only in class two or three days a week, said Superintendent Dr. James White.
White recommended the Piedmont School Board stick with the plan to slow the spread of COVID-19 through fall break, and then review the plan for in-person learning then.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic is currently in the yellow category, White said, the seventh through 12th grades should continue to go to school on schedules alternating from three days a week to two days a week in groups A and B. The plan reduces the number of students in classrooms and on buses.
The board unanimously approved White’s recommendation.
White said the district has 4,424 students enrolled, down since last year, and he thinks the social distancing plan at schools and the A and B group schedule will keep COVID-19 cases down enough to keep schools open.
There have been 45 eighth grade football players quarantined for two weeks at Piedmont this semester. There have also been 22 teachers quarantined. District-wide there have been 13 students test positive for COVID-19 and 141 students quarantined.
Staff members have continued to track cases that have been reported.
“We’re starting to see that Labor Day surge,” White said.
He praised the nurses at the schools for their work tracking cases and notifying families.
“We’re very thankful to have the quality of nurses we have. They’ve (nurses) had to make some very difficult calls, including 45 on an eighth grade football team to tell them they have been quarantined on something that is completely out of their hands. They’ve handled it very professionally,” White said.
Students in grades pre-kindergarten through sixth attend five days a week. Masks are required in the Piedmont district.
