MOUNT VERNON — Knox County school districts have recorded over 50 COVID-19 cases since the school year began last week.
The number of students and staff having to quarantine is at least four times the number of cases recorded district-wide. Not all student quarantines are the result of virus exposure in the school setting, multiple district superintendents said.
Knox County deputy health commissioner Zach Green said the incidence of quarantine is much higher this school year compared to last school year, when universal masking was in place.
All six of the county’s districts have been in session for just over a week now, with Danville Local Schools beginning first on Aug. 16 and Mount Vernon City Schools beginning last on Aug. 19.
Green said Friday that every school district in the county has recorded positive COVID-19 cases among students and staff, and has had to quarantine people as a result.
“If your son or daughter is not going to wear a facial covering in school as an option, the possibility of them being placed in quarantine and being removed from the classroom setting is unfortunately highly likely at this point,” Green said.
As of Friday, East Knox Local Schools is the only district in the county with an indoor mask mandate, which the district put in place on the fourth day of the school year due to a rise in cases and quarantines among students and staff.
One of Mount Vernon’s elementary schools, Wiggin Street Elementary, has a mask mandate, required through a Gambier village ordinance, but masks are optional in the rest of Mount Vernon schools.
Danville Elementary will begin mandating masks Monday following a rise in students having to quarantine, but masks will remain optional in its seventh through 12th grade building.
The highest number of active cases in one district is currently Fredericktown, with 17 active cases. Active cases refer to the number of cases still considered to be infectious.
Each district’s status
Fredericktown reported 16 active cases at 2 p.m. Friday, and added an additional staff case to its dashboard later that afternoon. The majority of active cases are among students; there are 14 student and three staff cases.
Its active cases include 10 elementary students and one elementary staff member; one middle school student and one middle school staff member; three high school students and one high school staff member, according to its dashboard.
As of Friday at 2 p.m., 111 Fredericktown students and staff were in quarantine.
Mount Vernon City Schools’s case and quarantine numbers are similar, with 16 active cases among staff and students and 97 students in quarantine, superintendent Bill Seder wrote in an email to Knox Pages Friday.
Mount Vernon has 14 active student COVID-19 cases and two active staff cases, according to data published on the district’s dashboard Aug. 27.
The majority of student cases (nine) were identified in the high school, with two at Dan Emmett Elementary, one at the middle school, one at Pleasant Street Elementary and one at Twin Oak Elementary. One staff case is from East Elementary, and the other was identified at Pleasant Street.
Since Mount Vernon began the school year on Aug. 19, the district has recorded a total of 17 cases — 14 students and three staff cases, according to the dashboard.
Out of the total of 97 students in the district quarantined, the number of students quarantined at the high school is 41, middle school is 37, Columbia Elementary is one, Dan Emmett Elementary is one, East Elementary is two, Pleasant Street Elementary is 11, Twin Oak Elementary is one, and Wiggin Street Elementary is three.
While Mount Vernon’s case numbers are on the higher end compared with other districts, it has a low percentage of active cases based on total population compared with other districts.
Mount Vernon’s active cases make up 0.37% of the student population and 0.37% of the staff population, according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard.
Knox County’s smallest district in terms of overall population, Danville, has four active cases — three student cases and one staff case, superintendent Jason Snively wrote in an email to Knox Pages Friday.
However, the percentage of its population affected by illness and quarantine is much higher than that of Mount Vernon.
Danville’s pre-kindergarten through sixth grade building has 14% of students absent due to COVID-19, and the seventh through 12th grade building has 4% of the students absent due to COVID-19, Snively wrote. The total absence rate at the PK-6 level is 23%, and the total absence rate at the 7-12 building is 10%, Snively wrote.
There have been a total of six positive COVID-19 cases in Danville as of Friday — one staff member and five students, all at the elementary school, Snively wrote.
East Knox has five active COVID-19 cases among students and staff, superintendent Steve Larcomb wrote to Knox Pages on Aug. 26. This data is also reflected in the district’s dashboard as of Aug. 27.
Six junior/senior high school students and 24 elementary students are in quarantine, Larcomb wrote. East Knox’s dashboard does not include the number of students and staff in quarantine.
“Approximately 26 of our elementary students and 34 Jr/Sr High students would have been quarantined this week as close contacts had we not reinstated our facial covering policy last Friday,” Larcomb wrote to Knox Pages Thursday.
East Knox has had a total of nine positive COVID-19 cases this school year, including four junior/senior high students, four elementary students and one staff member, according to the district dashboard and confirmed by Larcomb.
Centerburg has five active student cases, according to an update posted to the district’s website Friday.
Previously on Thursday, Centerburg had three active student cases and eight students quarantined as a result of being a close contact, superintendent Mike Hebenthal wrote in an email to Knox Pages the evening of Aug. 26.
Five cases have been identified in Centerburg schools thus far, according to its website.
Based on the last available data communicated to Knox Pages on Thursday, 13 students had been quarantined since the start of school, and no staff members had tested positive or had to quarantine, Hebenthal wrote.
Knox County Career Center has four active COVID-19 cases among students and staff, according to its dashboard numbers updated Friday.
The case at the preschool is a probable case, superintendent Kathrine Greenich wrote to Knox Pages Friday. Also in the preschool, 23 students and three staff members are quarantined.
The high school has three active cases and 13 quarantined. One high school staff member has also tested positive.
There are currently no active cases at Knox Technical Center.
Since Aug. 16, the preschool has had one probable case, 23 students quarantined and three staff quarantined. The high school has had four positive student cases and 25 students quarantined. There have been two cases among high school staff and three quarantines.
A total of one student and one staff member have tested positive at Knox Technical Center.
The aforementioned numbers were provided by Greenich Friday.
Local surge
COVID-19 cases in Knox County are continuing to rise.
As previously reported by Knox Pages, the county had 22 confirmed cases in June, 57 cases in July, and through the first three weeks of August, the county has recorded nearly 500 new cases – including 48 on Wednesday alone.
“We want to get this surge past us and we want to be able to move forward with our lives, but we’re just seeing these cases continue to rise,” Green said Friday. “And, I don’t want to say it’s completely regarding K through 12, but those kids coming back in the classroom during a surge is a recipe for disaster if we’re not utilizing the mitigation efforts that we’ve clearly known to work.”
These mitigation efforts include universal masking, vaccination, physical distancing, practicing proper hygiene and sanitation.
“There is no plateau in this surge in sight at this given point,” Green said. “Our cases daily are rising. We have hospitalizations up. Younger kids are getting sick.
“We are not in a good place. There’s no secret behind that, and it is critical that we as a community recognize that and do our part, especially when we are indoors.”
