Union County schools switch to remote learning for a week, citing COVID testing delays

Union County public school students will switch to remote learning next week so administrators can catch up on a backlog of COVID-19 tests and cases from the holidays, the school board decided Wednesday night.

The plan is for students to return to classrooms on the week of Jan. 11, with four days of in-person learning for elementary students and two days for middle and high school students.

That was the system in use before the holiday break.

The board’s decision actually affects just three school days – Tuesday through Thursday. Monday is a teacher workday, and the school system operates under full remote learning on Fridays.

The Union County decision comes as school systems across the region are wrestling with a surge in COVID-19 cases.

The Burke County Public Schools, which had been operating on a hybrid system of partial remote and partial in-person learning, will switch to full remote learning from Jan. 4-25.

Lincoln Charter School also switched to remote learning in mid-December, with plans to return students to classrooms Jan. 11. A Lincoln Charter teacher, Jamie Seitz, died Sunday night after contracting COVID-19 about a week before Christmas.

And the Cabarrus County School Board voted on Dec. 9 to move to remote learning from Dec. 14 until at least Jan. 20.

Union County: A week needed to assess data

At Wednesday’s meeting, Union County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Andrew Houlihan said next week’s remote schedule will help nurses and school officials catch up.

“We need to take one week to assess all our COVID data,” Houlihan said.

Board Chair Melissa Merrell said the need for a pause from in-person learning became apparent Tuesday, after Assistant Superintendent Jarrod McCraw met with Union County health officials and learned of delays in the testing process.

“Since the holiday break began, the county has shifted some staff from reporting and monitoring to doing vaccinations,” Merrell said. “There’s a little lag in the reporting of positive cases.”

Merrell also said McCraw was told that it is taking up to five days for some people to receive COVID test results. Some of that was due to the holidays, and the situation is expected to improve next week.

“Three days is a lot better than a 14-day break,” Merrell said, adding that a return to in-person learning next week with up-to-date testing results could result in quarantines for large groups of students and staff.

Houlihan said the only staff permitted inside school buildings next week will be custodians, administrators and nurses.

However, the superintendent said he will permit middle school and high school athletics to continue. Next week is the start of the public school high school basketball season in North Carolina, and girls’ volleyball and swimming seasons also are under way.

Allowing athletics to continue caught some heat from board member Gary Sides, who asked the board to suspend athletics next week too. But fellow board members took exception with Sides’ suggestion.

“Sports have been going on during the holiday break,” board member Kathy Heintel said. “They have their own pods and protocols.”

The issue was approved 7-1, with Sides casting the dissenting vote.

Sides and fellow board member Rev. Jimmy Bention said Wednesday’s decision will cause problems for some parents.

“Our parents have less than a week to make arrangements,” Sides said.

“I would like for us to give parents more advance warning, if possible, in the future,” Bention added.

McCraw said he was told by Union County officials that school nurses will receive COVID-19 vaccinations Jan. 7-9. He and Houlihan said they have not received any word as to when other school system personnel might be vaccinated.

The board also voted Wednesday to pay hourly employees, such as bus drivers and cafeteria workers, for next week. Shanna McLamb, the system’s chief of financial services, said doing so will cost the school system about $155,000. She said the money will come from local funds, but federal COVID relief can be used to make up for local money spent on payroll.

The board also voted to move its next meeting, scheduled for Jan. 7, to Jan. 12.