South Pike schools are following the latest guidance on masking, distancing and preventing the spread of COVID-19, but the district is still feeling the pinch of the pandemic.
Head district nurse Felecia Scott told school board members Thursday that quarantine and isolation for students and staff who are exposed to or test positive for COVID-19 is now just five days for those who are asymptomatic.
Those people should then wear a mask an additional five days and be tested on the fifth day.
School nurses can administer the COVID-19 tests, and “we can put them in touch with shot providers,” Scott said.
The virus had waned in the schools, but is making a comeback, she said.
“We had no positive results in the schools before Christmas,” Scott said. “We had three positives” Wednesday.
Eva Gordon Elementary School principal Dr. Geneva Holmes said she didn’t know the extent to which COVID-19 might be to blame, but there were 100 students not in attendance at the about 650-student school on Thursday.
She also reported that Eva Gordon has seen schoolwide growth in proficiency and performing on grade level on diagnostic tests, though some of those gains are small.
Holmes said teachers are reviewing concepts where students fell short last semester, and “when we get all our students back in school, we hope we can keep them growing.”
At Osyka Elementary School, principal Dr. Angela Lowery said proficiency has improved significantly for the year so far, with the number of students performing on grade level almost doubling in reading, from 48 to 94, and almost tripling in math, from 30 to 81.
Only 20 students at the school score two grades or more behind in reading, and only 12 were two grades or more behind in math.
“We’re working with our lower-performing students and our higher-performing students,” Lowery said. “We’re doing everything we can to get to the next (rating) level. I’m pretty confident we can get there. It helps that we have all our students in the building this year,”
Junior high principal Warren Eyster also has his eyes on improving his school’s rating this year.
He believes a B rating is in reach for the junior high. The school’s goal for points based on student proficiency and growth is 385, which is in the B range.
The school earned 358 points last year, while diagnostic test results so far this year would give the school about 317 points.
Many of the school’s students do not score proficient and are not close to it, but the school has a recent history of growing student performance on state tests, even if that growth doesn’t bring the students to proficiency.
In reading and math for both seventh and eighth grades, 60% or more of students are showing growth this year Eyster said. The school’s goal for growth this year is 75%.
