Lawrence district, Floyd school temporarily halt classroom work

By TONY FYFFE

BSN Editor

LOUISA – The Lawrence County School District and a Floyd County high school, both of which began offering in-person instruction a few weeks ago for students who chose that option, went back to non-traditional teaching Tuesday for the rest of the week as a matter of precaution. Lawrence County Superintendent Dr. Robbie Fletcher temporarily suspended classroom instruction due to a high number of COVID-19 cases reported in the county Monday, while students at Floyd Central High School were sent home to work after a staff member tested positive for the virus. “After talking with Health Department Officials, it was evident that a large number of positive cases would be added today and likely again tomorrow,” Fletcher said Monday. The number of new cases — 14 — would likely move the school district to the “red” category “at some point this week on the state incidence map,” Fletcher said. “For clarification, we have a high number of QUARANTINES OR CONTACTS in the school system, but a quarantine does NOT impact the category of a county,” Fletcher said in a message to parents and the community. “The incidence rate is based only on the number of positive cases for the previous seven days. Before today, our county incidence rate had decreased from Saturday to Sunday. Lawrence County was ‘orange’ on both days. As a matter of fact, the state incidence map has us in the ‘orange’ category even on Monday. On the other hand, we felt that closing school in anticipation of a ‘RED’ rating was best for the safety of our students and staff members.” The state uses a four-color metric to determine if school districts should use in-person or virtual learning based on the number of COVID-19 cases in their counties. Fletcher said Monday that to his knowledge there were only two positive cases added from the school district, which he learned after deciding to move to at-home instruction for the rest of the week. He said a decision would be made by Sunday whether to provide at-home instruction for all students next week. Fletcher also said that the Lawrence County High School volleyball and Louisa Middle School girls’ basketball teams have been quarantined. “One sports team was quarantined due to playing another school that had a positive case, which was unknown at game time,” he said. “The second sports team was quarantined due to contact tracing for other reasons.” Floyd County Superintendent Danny Adkins announced Monday that FCHS students would get virtual instruction the rest of the week due to the positive COVID-19 test results of a staff member. “This means that no one will report to Floyd Central High School tomorrow and that any students who attend the Floyd County Area Technology Center for half day or the Floyd County School of Innovation for half day will also be virtual for the remainder of this week. These changes are necessary until contact tracing can be completed.” Adkins also said there would be no activities, games or practices Tuesday and that officials would re-evaluate and make decisions on extra- and co-curricular activities for the remainder of the week.