Amid the COVID-19 surge, some Delaware schools are being forced to close temporarily or switch to remote learning due to staffing issues.
“It’s important to recognize that many schools and districts are dealing with critical shortages in staff — whether due to positive COVID cases, necessary quarantine protocols and restrictions, and/or inability to fill positions,” said Stephanie Ingram, Delaware State Education Association president. “There are not always enough adults to safely operate buildings for in-person learning.”
The Division of Public Health reported record numbers of COVID-19 cases and COVID-19-related hospitalizations for last week. With 734 people hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Wednesday, multiple Delaware health care systems implemented Crisis Standards of Care this week.
With the state’s weekly average number of cases at 2,753 and the percent of positive tests at about 30% as of Wednesday, Gov. John Carney mandated masks in indoor public settings Tuesday. But he’s made it clear the decision to learn virtually or in-person will remain with the local school districts.
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“We continue to hope to be able to keep our schools open for in-person instruction,” he said Tuesday. “We know that some schools will have to close mostly because of employees … that are not able to come to work because they have tested positive or their close contact or family member tested positive.”
Capital School District in the Dover area switched to virtual learning last week, according to Superintendent Vilicia Cade, “due to lack of staff.”
The Delmar School District had a half-day Monday “due to operational limitations with quarantining and isolation of staff members,” according to an email sent to families Sunday.
For the same reason, multiple Christiana School District schools and William Penn High School in the Colonial School District went virtual for at least one day this week.
Lake Forest High School switched to virtual learning Wednesday and will continue in that format through Jan. 21.
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New Castle County Vo-Tech School District students have been learning virtually since last week.
Monitoring staff members’ COVID-19 statuses is a job in itself, superintendents say. Most districts have daily meetings to assess those statuses. Lake Forest School District even hired a clerk to lessen the coronavirus-related workload of other employees.
For each employee, each day, districts must determine: Have they tested positive for COVID-19? If so, how many days before they can be tested again? If they’re well, have they been exposed to COVID-19? If so, are they vaccinated? Boosted?
All those factors come into play when determining when staff can return to work. On Dec. 27, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shortened the recommended quarantine and isolation time for the unvaccinated from 10 to five days and eliminated quarantine and isolation periods for the vaccinated altogether.
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Colonial School District Superintendent Jeff Mezner said he appreciates the efforts being made by the state and the CDC to try to keep kids in school, however, there are logistics involved every time changes to the Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention in K-12 Schools are made.
“It’s challenging. When you add a decision or a factor into returning to work, someone has to track and monitor that,” Menzer said.
Multiple school districts also report substitute teacher shortages. Following Carney’s most recent update to the State of Emergency, which allows recently retired state employees to work as substitutes sooner, the Indian River School District issued a call for such substitutes and offered increased pay.
Capital School District Superintendent Vilicia Cade said she’s come to expect the unexpected.
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“It’s moment to moment. I anticipate that things are going to be unclear, ambiguous and inconsistent because of where we are in this whole health crisis,” she said. “The only constant that we have is change.”
The Woodbridge School District, for one, has not yet had to cancel school or switch to virtual learning due COVID-related staffing issues.
“I hope I can say the same in two weeks, in a month,” Superintendent Heath Chasanov said. “We’re hoping we’ve hit the peak. That’s what everyone’s hoping.”
