Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. said Friday that since Aug. 10, there have been 15 confirmed positive cases of COVID-19 among the school corporation’s population.
Out of that number, five individuals have been physically present in BCSC buildings. These numbers include all students and staff, regardless of if they are working or learning in-person or remotely.
There are four cases from Columbus East High School, three from Richards Elementary and two from the administration building. There has been one case from each of the following buildings: Busy Bees Academy, Columbus Signature Academy Fodrea, Columbus Signature Academy New Tech, Mt. Healthy Elementary, Columbus North High School and Parkside Elementary.
School officials also said that 48 close contacts have been identified as a result of these positive cases within the school system, and 138 other students or staff have been quarantined due to other positive cases within the community.
The COVID-19 Community Task Force also released an update on its indicators regarding community spread with the new metrics for the week.
While the task force did not state an overall designation on its website, it said that for the week of Aug. 31, for BCSC students, “in-person instruction will continue, in addition to BRIDGE and Columbus Virtual Pathway programs.”
The task force posted the following data on its community spread dashboard:
There are 11 positive cases within the school system, and the number is listed as increasing (as of Aug. 26)
Per capita positive rate is 12.4 and decreasing (as of Aug. 26)
Percent positive test rate is 8.2% and decreasing (as of Aug. 22)
There are 12 COVID hospitalizations, and the number is decreasing (as of Aug. 26)
Test turnaround time is 2.0 days and decreasing (as of Aug. 23)
Per capita positive rate is still in the substantial spread or “red” category at present, as it has been since Aug. 9. If it falls to between five to 10, it will be in the moderate spread category.
The number of hospitalizations is in the moderate spread category at present after being in the red from Aug. 22 to Aug. 25. If it rises above 14, it will be back in the red. If it falls to less than 10, it will be in the minimal spread category.
Percent positive test rate and test turnaround time are both in the minimal spread category.
The dashboard indicators are intended to guide the school corporation on deciding whether or not schools can continue to meet for in-person learning, which began Aug. 10.
Whether or not in-person learning continues at BCSC depends whether certain COVID-19 data indicates that the school system is in a “minimal,” “moderate” or “substantial” spread category. Superintendent Jim Roberts has said in the past that an overall designation of substantial spread would result in a move to eLearning.
New state COVID-19 metrics, announced Wednesday by Gov. Eric Holcomb, measure per capita rate, positive test rate and the specific amounts of increase or decrease in positive test rate. These categories are also scored from 0-3 and averaged into a number that determines a community’s spread.
Thursday afternoon, Roberts and other superintendents from southeastern Indiana met virtually with Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box, at her request, to discuss the new metrics.
Roberts said that Box indicated that the state measures are in place to provide recommendations/guidance, but are not required to be used.
He also said that it is his understanding that state updates regarding these measures for each county will be released every Wednesday.
There will need for further discussions about the two sets of metrics, especially since the state metrics include specific recommendations of what communities and schools should do based on certain levels of spread, with hybrid education forms being one of the state’s suggestions for certain situations, Roberts said.
“Right now the conversation is around balancing what we’ve created locally with now what the state is providing for every county,” he said.
Roberts said that if BCSC were to alter its COVID-19 metrics, which are part of the reopening plan, the process would involve the school board. He said this discussion may arise at a future board meeting. The next board meeting is scheduled for Sept. 14.
“The development of our local metrics was due to the effort of many people, so we will be making sure to engage the same people, including our school board members, to determine how best to use the state measures,” he said.
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The task force posts updates on COVID-19 metrics every Monday and Thursday at covid19communitytaskforce.org/data/.
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Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp. is reporting a confirmed positive COVID-19 case at Hauser Jr./Sr. High School for the week ending Aug. 28. This appears to be the first confirmed positive case in the school corp. since it began in-person learning on Aug. 4.
Every Friday, the school corporation has said it will update its website with the number of COVID-19 cases at both Hauser and Hope Elementary for the past week, as well as the number of student referrals for “failure to properly wear mask” and “failure to social distance” at both schools.
This week, there was one mask-related referral at Hauser. There were no social distancing referrals.
The site states that, "This data is a weekly snapshot and does not represent a running total." As such, Friday’s update does not include the data that was posted from the previous week.
So far, there have been no social distancing referrals reported by these weekly updates.
For the week ending Aug. 21, there were two mask referrals at Hope and one at Hauser. For the week ending Aug. 14, there was one mask referral at Hauser.
The update can be found at flatrock.k12.in.us/. Other COVID-19 resources from the school corp. can be found at flatrock.k12.in.us/covid-19.
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