FREDERICKTOWN — Fredericktown Local Schools has 111 students and staff in quarantine, a number that has increased by over 40 since Wednesday.
Fredericktown has 16 active COVID-19 cases, as of Friday at 2 p.m., with 14 student cases and two staff cases.
The district saw an increase in six COVID-19 cases between Wednesday and Thursday, with seven active cases Wednesday and 13 active cases Thursday, according to its COVID-19 dashboard.
The district will consider mandating masks indoors or switching to remote learning if case numbers and quarantines continue to increase, superintendent Susan Hayward wrote in an email to Knox Pages Friday.
“We are closely monitoring positive cases,” Hayward wrote. “We are looking at daily attendance percentages, classrooms, grade bands, ES/MS/HS buildings, and the district as a whole.
“If our numbers continue to increase we will look at the following: facemasks for all staff and students and remote learning (for classrooms, grade band, buildings, and the district as a whole).”
Fredericktown currently has an optional mask policy. Hayward did not provide a response by the time of publication regarding what percentage of cases or people in quarantine in the district would warrant either a mask policy change or a move to remote learning.
Knox County deputy health commissioner Zach Green said Friday the case and quarantine information from the dashboard is accurate to the best of the health department’s knowledge.
“Not all individuals within Fredericktown school district is a county resident therefore they’re not under necessarily our jurisdiction,” Green said.
The incidence of quarantine is much higher this school year compared with last school year when universal masking was in place, Green said.
“Universal masking was in place, so we had positive cases but we didn’t have as many kids quarantined,” Green said, comparing the 2020-21 school year to the current school year.
Unmasked, unvaccinated students who are identified as close contacts to someone who tests positive for the COVID-19 virus are required to quarantine. However, if a student who consistently wears a mask or a vaccinated student is exposed to someone who tests positive for the COVID-19 virus, they are not required to be quarantined.
Students under 12 years of age are ineligible for COVID-19 vaccination at this time. A close contact is someone who has been within 6 feet of a person with a confirmed case of COVID-19 for more than 15 minutes without a double barrier (both students wearing masks properly).
“The vast majority of kids being placed in quarantine last year was because of athletics,” Green said. “It wasn’t because of the classroom.”
Universal masking is critical to prevent virus spread and widespread quarantining in Fredericktown and other Knox County schools, Green said.
KPH has strongly urged Knox County schools to adopt universal masking, which is in line with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Ohio Department of Health.
“Our standpoint at Knox Public Health has not changed,” Green said. “Universal masking regardless of vaccination status is imperative in a congregate setting of such nature when you talk about K-12 schools.
“And, I’m not going to sit here and say that a mask is the be all and is going to solve everyone’s problems and we’re not going to have another case of COVID(-19) — but it does definitely lessen the rate of transmission in the classroom.
“We saw that last year when universal masking was being utilized. It was highly effective. We had less than 4% positivity in our school systems last year. I don’t know what this percentage is at this point in time, we’re only a couple weeks in, but we’re definitely not on a good track. I think we all can agree upon that.”
Based on available Fredericktown district population data, the percentage of students/staff in quarantine is likely around 10%.
According to Fredericktown’s audit for the fiscal year ending June 2020, the district was “staffed by 54 classified employees and 88 certificated employees who provide services to 1,266 students and other community members.”
The district’s student population was 1,166 for the 2019-2020 school year, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
Several schools across Ohio have closed or switched to remote learning because of spikes in COVID-19 cases and people having to be quarantined as a result.
A school outside Cincinnati, Bethel Tate High School, switched to online instruction for several days this week because of high numbers of student illnesses and quarantines.
Bethel Tate has the same mask policy as Fredericktown, and most Knox County districts. Masks are recommended but not required.
Fairfield Local Schools in Leesburg, Ohio, is closed until Aug. 30 because of an escalating number of students and staff absent due to illness. Increased illness rates at Fairfield are not solely due to the COVID-19 virus; Rhinovirus and bronchial infections are at high rates as well.
While Fairfield previously had an optional mask policy, upon the return to in-person instruction at the end of the month Fairfield students, staff and guests will be required to wear masks in school facilities.
Athens City Schools, which began classes on Wednesday, closed through the end of August, because of virus spread among transportation faculty. Athens City Schools requires people to wear masks indoors.
Within Knox County, as of Friday, East Knox Local Schools is the only district with an indoor mask mandate. The district began mandating mask-wearing indoors on the fourth day of the school year due to a rise in cases and quarantines among students and staff.
Wiggin Street Elementary School also has a mask mandate, required through a Gambier village ordinance, but masks are optional in the rest of Mount Vernon City Schools. Danville Elementary School announced Friday it will be requiring masks indoors starting Monday, following a rise in student quarantines.
Herald's Appliance, a local staple in Knox County since 1952, proudly sponsors the Knox Pages education section.
