TCSS Reports Spike In New Coronavirus Cases Among Students, Staff

TUSCALOOSA, AL. — The Tuscaloosa County School System (TCSS) has reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases among students and staff for all Alabama school districts, according to the latest data from the Alabama Department of Public Health. However, while the district continues to urge diligence with respect to public health guidelines outside of the classroom, officials say they feel good about the efficacy of measures currently in place.

The numbers for each school district combine cases confirmed in both students and employees, with ADPH saying TCSS had confirmed 82 new cases as of Nov. 6. The next-highest total for new cases in an individual system during this time is the 36,000-student Jefferson County Schools at 54, in a school district with twice the student population of TCSS.

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With nearly 19,000 students, TCSS ranks as the ninth-largest school district in the state. The district has also been disclosing its systemwide numbers online since Sept. 3, providing two-week breakdowns.

While the new case numbers are undoubtedly high, the latest figures do come up just short of the last major spike in new cases for TCSS, when the system reported 84 students testing positive from Sept. 11-25.

TCSS Superintendent Keri Johnson's office said in a statement that in keeping with the pattern officials have seen across the system since the start of the school year, the majority of student COVID-19 cases seem to have been contracted outside of school.

"This information also indicates to us that more students are currently getting tested, but many are asymptomatic," the statement said.

Johnson will address the media via Zoom at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Tuscaloosa Patch will update this story following the call.

EXAMINING CONTEXT

At present, 84% of TCSS students are currently attending school on campus, according to the system's latest update. When compared to other systems currently facing high case counts, larger school districts with more widely-available technological resources for remote learning have seen cases trend in a seemingly better direction, primarily due to lower percentages of students attending in-person learning.

For example, another large school district facing an increase in new cases is Huntsville City Schools, which reported 39 new cases during the same time as TCSS's 82, despite having roughly 5,000 more students. In comparing the two districts, though, HCS reports that roughly 72% of its students are currently enrolled in traditional, in-person learning — a substantially lower percentage than TCSS.

Patch previously reported ahead of the start of the fall semester that TCSS faced technological gaps, ranging from internet access for students in rural areas to the system not being a One-to-One district, meaning the district does not have an inventory of wifi-capable devices to give to each individual student. This ultimately prevented TCSS from going with a full virtual learning approach to start an unorthodox school year.

Huntsville City Schools, which happens to be a One-to-One district, also had the capabilities and resources to previously shift three of its high schools exclusively to virtual learning after the start of the school year due to an outbreak in cases. And while current data was not readily available at the time of this article's publication, Jefferson County Schools — also a One-to-One district — saw more than half of its students (56%) opt-in to virtual learning to begin the fall semester, according to a previous report by Patch.

It is unclear at this time how each of the 34 TCSS schools have been individually impacted by the current spike reflected in ADPH numbers, but the system did say it was aware of 143 TCSS students or employees who tested positive for COVID-19 from Oct. 9-23.

According to TCSS, 92 of the 143 known positive cases were identified within the populations at Hillcrest High School (47 cases) and Tuscaloosa County High School (45 cases). Additionally, the system said Brookwood High School reported 14 positive cases during this time, while all other schools in the system had fewer than five.

TCSS also reported that 86% of those identified as close contacts were in the system's middle and high schools. It was then explained that TCSS secondary school students, as compared to elementary students, come in contact more with their peers due to extracurricular activities and class changes.

What's more, TCSS said as of Nov. 9, approximately 45 employees were listed as absent under the system's COVID-19 absence code, representing approximately 2% of the system's 2,275 employees.

"As we move into the holiday season, we ask everyone to be extremely mindful of the practices health experts say are effective in fighting COVID-19," the statement from the superintendent's office said. "As challenging as this situation is, we do believe we will come out of this time stronger and better prepared to overcome adversity.

Conversely, Tuscaloosa City Schools — a One-to-One district with more than 10,000 students that returned to in-person instruction in late October after an extended period under a remote learning format — reported eight active cases among students and five among employees in its latest update. In total, 173 TCS students and 36 employees are currently in quarantine due to exposure or testing positive.

The news also comes amid a spike in inpatient cases for DCH Health System in Tuscaloosa and a surge in new cases and hospitalizations not only statewide, but across the nation.

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