Nearly 300 employees with Georgia’s largest school district have tested positive for COVID-19 or been exposed to the virus.
The Gwinnett County School District will not return to in-person classes and will instead reopen with online learning for the school year starting August 12.
However, while students can stay at home teachers are still required to come to school for their remote teaching.
Teachers began to return to their schools for in-person planning on Wednesday and on Thursday the school district reported 260 employees tested positive for the virus or had contact with a positive case, removing a major chunk of the school force just days before the start of the semester.
‘As of last Thursday, we had approximately 260 employees who had been excluded from work due to a positive case or contact with a case,’ Sloan Roach, a GCPS spokeswoman said to CNN.
‘This number is fluid as we continue to have new reports and others who are returning to work.’
Georgia’s largest school district Gwinnett County Schools have reported 260 employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 or were exposed to a case. Now they’ll be ‘excluded’ from work just days before the school year starts on August 12
The district, the largest employer in the county, employs more than 24,900 people, meaning one percent is infected or affected by the virus.
Protests have taken place outside of the Gwinnett County School District building over the weekend comprising of teachers who demand to teach from their homes to protect themselves from the virus and parents who are adamant for their kids to return to school.
Teachers also protested to demand the district address the needs of some 3,000 students who don’t have computers or access to WiFi for remote learning.
‘I believe as of March, there were 3,000 of our families who don’t have internet access,’ educator Shavaun Mincey said to WSB-TV. ‘We need to be able to stand in the gap, reallocate some funds and be able to help our families so that all are successful.’
The district, located in Atlanta, is the largest school system in the state and serves 180,000 students.
The district had planned to start the school year with in-person and online instruction, however due to spikes in cases across the country the district decided to start remotely for students.
In the decision the district also said teachers will no longer be allowed to work remotely, according to the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The move switched to virtual teaching was ‘due to the current COVID-19 situation in our county and the rising numbers of cases in Gwinnett County,’ Roach said.
She noted there is already a reporting and tracing process in place and a protocol for excluding employees who test positive or have been exposed. Roach said that due to the tracing process the district determined a majority of the cases were the result of community spread.
The school district decided to have remote learning for students but teachers still have to report to their schools to teach
While students will start classes remotely, teachers with the district are still told to report to school
‘We have people who have called in to report who have not been at school or work,’ she said.
Gwinnett County has the second highest rate of COIVD-19 cases in the state with 17,781 confirmed infections, according to Georgia’s Department of Public Health.
Statewide Georgia has more than 190,000 cases and 3,800 deaths as of Monday morning.
‘Given the number of COVID cases in Gwinnett we would expect to see positives among our employees based on the community spread in our county,’ Roach said.
Now teachers are concerned to report to schools to teach even if students aren’t there following the outbreak.
Some instructors reported that in-person training and meetings are taking place in spaces that aren’t properly disinfected and masks aren’t worn at all times.
Across the country school districts are grappling with the decision on whether to return to in person teaching this fall.
Teachers also protested to demand the district address the needs of some 3,000 students who don’t have computers or access to WiFi for remote learning. ‘I believe as of March, there were 3,000 of our families who don’t have internet access. We need to be able to stand in the gap, reallocate some funds and be able to help our families so that all are successful,’ educator Shavaun Mincey said
A protest of parents demanding the schools let children return to school next week above
Parents protested outside the Gwinnett County Schools building over the weekend demanding students be allowed to return to in-person classes
A view of the parent protest pictured above with signs that say ‘Zoom is not a classroom’
Students and parents held signs that said ‘Let me go to school’ and ‘Moms choose in school’
Ashley Newman resigned from her post as a teacher at Gwinnett Elementary due to the threat of returning to school in the midst of the pandemic.
‘I personally know of at least 16 schools with outbreaks and teacher have only been back for three days,’ Newman said to the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
But she’s struggled since stepping away.
‘I applied for the government funding where I could get two-thirds of my pay for 12 weeks, but I was denied,’ she said.
Newman explained she has a four-year-old daughter who is too young to come to school with her and although daycare is open, there are 16 registered children in the program, which is more than Newman is comfortable with.