TCSS Addresses Concerns Following Jump In New Coronavirus Cases

TUSCALOOSA, AL. — Tuscaloosa County School System Superintendent Keri Johnson addressed a wide range of topics Tuesday following concerns raised due to a rise in new coronavirus cases among TCSS students and employees.

A primary talking point focused on what Johnson referred to as a spike in raw data from the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH), which showed the district to have the highest number of new virus cases among any school district in the state at 82.

"I'm not super concerned," Johnson told local media in a video conference. "The numbers you’re looking at are straight raw numbers. I really feel like the dashboard is somewhat misleading. There are some school systems that have 2,000 or less students. It's really hard to tell where we are in the state when you’re just looking at the raw data."

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Patch reported Tuesday that TCSS, in comparison with other leaders in cases, such as the Jefferson County and Huntsville City school districts, has 84% of its nearly 19,000 students participating in on-campus learning. This marks a much higher percentage than the aforementioned systems ranking among the top in cases, but who reported lower numbers of new positives despite having substantially larger populations.

Johnson explained the recent data published by ADPH was in need of additional context and said she had a call planned with the State Department of Education to lobby for the numbers to be accompanied by the percentage of the student/employee populations impacted.

"It is very frustrating when I see the headline that we are leading the state in cases," she said. "But when I do the math and we have less than 1% of our student population who is positive, it is concerning.

In discussing the numbers over the last two weeks, Johnson said the uptick in cases can been directly linked to homecoming parties and Halloween parties. She then reiterated that the system has no reason to believe the majority of students getting sick are contracting the virus from each other at school.

She also recommended those in the community access the system's online COVID-19 resources to stay up-to-date on case counts and hot spots, as opposed to relying strictly on data from the state health department and other outside data sources.

"We've actually been releasing the numbers to the public through our website since early September and you can go onto our website and see what those numbers are," Johnson added. "So we just really encourage people to look at our site, because if we have an area that has higher numbers than another area in the county, we’ve been updating that every other week."

CONCERN OVER DOCTOR'S NOTES

Another issue, raised to local media by parents and TCSS employees, centered on talk of close-contact students being allowed to return to in-person learning with a doctor's excuse, despite not completing the prescribed amount of quarantine time.

Johnson said TCSS does not simply give permission for students to come back with only a doctor's note and went on to explain the system's standing policy.

If a student is exposed, Johnson said, TCSS will adhere to guidelines set out in the ADPH Toolkit, which currently calls for the student to be sent home with instructions to self-isolate for 14 days. She then said the rest of the process is handled by the student's physician.

"There are many reasons that doctors could write those excuses and we don’t feel that we have the authority to question what those reasons are," Johnson explained. "Our nurses are required by oath to take those doctor's excuses and, to be honest with you, I’m not going to put my administrators in a position of saying "no, we’re not going to take any excuses," when our nurses have to take the excuse. We’re all going to be on the same page."

She went on to point out that doctors can write excuses for a number of things that could clear a student to return to the classroom, such as if a child had come into contact with the virus after already testing positive over the last 90 days and previously completing a 14-day quarantine.

"Because of HIPAA, we can't ask a doctor why they have written that letter and the doctor can't tell us why they have written that letter, unless the parent gave them permission to do so," Johnson said.

She did say, however, that when TCSS first started the fall semester, administrators faced a problem of some students who were identified as close-contacts being sent home to quarantine and then going to a drive-through testing site for a negative test to be able to come back to school.

"We really need your doctor to have seen you and to be writing an excuse to clear you to come," Johnson said.

STAFFING AND TECHNOLOGY

Technological capabilities have been consistent hurdles for the 34-school system since the beginning of the pandemic, ultimately hampering any chance for a full virtual start for the 2020 fall semester. Patch previously reported that TCSS is not a One-to-One school district, meaning it lacks the necessary inventory of WiFi-capable devices to give to each individual student.

As coronavirus cases rise among the TCSS population, spikes in new cases and hospitalizations are being reported in the surrounding community and across the nation. As the holidays approach, with cases expected to climb once again due to social gatherings, the future approach is unclear for most institutions, including TCSS.

However, in the event a major pivot is required of the school system, Johnson said TCSS would be better prepared to equip students with the resources they need to continue learning.

For instance, she told Patch that the system had finally secured 7,000 iPads and is in the process of getting them ready to deploy as needed.

"Since then, we have also gotten a ton of [WiFi] hot spots out to people, so we are in a much better position now technology-wise if we had to go full virtual at some point in time than we were, even right before school started and for sure in better positions than we were last spring."

One ongoing issue, though, is the system's capabilities when trying to reach all students, some of whom live in far-reaching parts of the county that may not have internet access.

"We have kind of figured out who those people are and we have a plan to help those kids, too, should the need arise," Johnson said.

On the staffing side, Johnson said a primary challenge has come in maintaining a pool of substitute teachers, with full-time teachers and substitutes alike having to isolate due to testing positive or exposure.

As of Monday, TCSS reported that 45 employees were listed as absent under the COVID-19 absence code, making up roughly 2% of the system's 2,275 employees

"We have more absences than we typically have," Johnson said. "When we pair that with the number of subs we have, we are at a great need for substitutes."

She added that those interested in substituting can visit the TCSS website to learn more.

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