Students at Forrest County Agricultural High School in Brooklyn have transitioned to a virtual learning schedule for at least 14 days, following three outbreaks of COVID-19 that were recently confirmed on campus.
FCAHS superintendent Donna Boone said the outbreaks were discovered on Aug. 5. The virtual schedule began on Aug. 6 and will last until Aug. 19, with students returning back to campus on Aug. 20 if all goes according to plan.
“Guidance from the Mississippi State Department of Health says when you have three or more outbreaks, you need to consider that,” Boone said. “We just felt like the numbers were escalating a little faster than we would like for them to do.
“To take everybody’s health and safety into consideration, we felt like we needed to slow the transmission, and this was the way to do it. It’s not how we wanted to start out the school year; just like with the Lamar County (School District), that’s not how they wanted to start out either. But that’s what we felt like we needed to do.”
Students and parents have been supplied with the means to complete coursework at home. Forrest County Agricultural High School offers Chromebooks on a 1:1 basis, which means that every student in the school is provided with one of those devices.
Students are required to log in and be present during their regular class periods; households without Internet access should contact the school for an alternate instructional program. Teachers are contacting parents via SchoolStatus regarding requirements for online instruction.
Any student who has not picked up a Chromebook should call the school office at (601) 582-4741.
“Our students do have Chromebooks, and we are doing live Google instruction,” Boone said. “So the kids log in, and the teachers are there to do the instruction.
“For those students that don’t have Internet access, we’ve already had all of them reach out to us (on Aug. 6), so as of (Aug. 9), they will get paper packets that will be equal to the work we’re doing in the classroom. They’ll have to bring those with them when they come back on the 20th.”
Melas are continuing to be served during virtual learning, and information will be sent to parents regarding a meal delivery schedule.
At the end of the 14-day virtual period, school officials will look at COVID numbers to determine whether any more measures should be taken.
“We have asked parents to continue to contact us, even though we’re not in school, to let us know about positives,” Boone said. “By the time we get to our 14 days, we’ll re-evaluate and decide what we’re going to do.”
As part of Forrest County Agricultural High School’s return-to-school plan, masks are required for everyone on campus. Students who have COVID symptoms are asked to stay home and see their primary care physician; contract tracing is conducted when a positive case occurs.
In addition, students are encouraged to bring refillable water bottles; glass containers are not allowed. All water fountains on campus have been converted to bottle-filling stations.
School visitors are limited and must have an appointment.
Three schools in the Lamar County School District - Oak Grove High School, Oak Grove Middle School and Purvis High School - transitioned to virtual learning after six positive COVID cases were found amount faculty and staff in the first week of school. Online courses for that district began Aug. 4 and will run until at least Aug. 13.
School district officials plan to resume in-person classes on Aug. 16.
