Putnam Schools Will Delay School Reopening To Wednesday

The Putnam County Schools will delay the reopening of school until Wednesday.

“We will delay the opening of school until Wednesday, January the 6th, rather than Monday the 4th, and the reason for this way is to allow our teachers and staff members who would like to receive the vaccine for COVID-19 the opportunity to do so,” Director Of Schools Corby King said. “It will take time.”

Wednesday morning, the State Department Of Health moved teachers up in the vaccination order. King said the chance to vaccinate teachers means protection for team members, students and helping parents who need to work.

“Closing schools places hardship on many, you know, not only our students, but their families in trying to provide educational opportunities and resources for their students,” King said. “We’ve been very fortunate in Putnam County to be able to be open in person throughout the first semester. We’re hopeful to be able to remain open even as we return. And that does provide protection for our families as well.”

Teacher vaccinations will be available beginning Saturday. King said teachers will be receiving directions from the school system on how to get vaccinated.

Meantime, King and the leadership team are preparing for students’ return Wednesday. King said it could be as long as three weeks before the community knows if COVID surged during the Christmas and New Years break.

“I said in an email with the parents earlier today that we’ve had 800 faculty, staff members and students who have tested positive throughout the fall semester,” King said. “And we know in our community as the numbers go up or down, we will be impacted as well. But out of those, 32 believe their exposure came during some school related activity, and we know that many of those were in extracurricular activities, whether they were in close contact and not necessarily masking.”

Putnam County got through the fall semester without a move to virtual learning, something King said he remains thankful for. King said he hopes to avoid that in the spring semester.

“We do have things in place if we have to make a transition to remote learning, we have a plan in place for that,” King said. Families need to be planning as well. We’re hoping to avoid that. We hope that this spread doesn’t happen. We hope that our community has done well over the break and that the numbers will start coming back down. But in the event they don’t, we do have a plan in place for transitioning to remote learning.”