Robbinsville – Graham County Schools is beginning to see more issues with COVID-19, with a substantial number of students in quarantine at one of its schools.
Robbinsville Elementary School Principal Jaime Hooper said at Tuesday’s Graham County Board of Education meeting that there were currently 102 students in quarantine at the elementary school, plus five confirmed positive cases.
She said the issue was mostly concentrated in fifth grade and that starting approximately Monday, the quarantined students would begin to return to school.
“We had quite the hotspot from a group that sat together at lunch,” Hooper said.
The district’s two other schools are also seeing noticeable increases, albeit not as drastic as those at the elementary school. As of Tuesday, Robbinsville Middle School had one staff member positive and none in quarantine and no students positive, but four in quarantine.
At Robbinsville High School, 16 students were quarantined and two positive. No Robbinsville High School staff were positive or in quarantine.
“We’ve not been reporting those, because we’ve really not had the staff in place to put our report together,” said Superintendent Angie Knight. “We’ve just been getting our nurses on board the past few days and we’ve asked them to help us get that chart going again.”
During the first Delta variant spike, the district released almost daily charts on its social media channel showing the number of cases and quarantines district-wide. The last such chart was released Oct. 25.
Quarantine lasts for 10 days if the student was wearing a face covering, or 14 days without.
The board voted unanimously to continue with masks optional for the time being.
“I say with no more time left in school for those who are quarantined, we continue with the option,” said board member Pam Knott.
All school boards in North Carolina are required by the state to vote on whether to keep masks optional or make them mandatory once a month.
Graham County schools reverted back to optional masks on Nov. 3, after voting to require face coverings following an eight-day virtual period in an emergency meeting held Aug. 30. The main factor leading to the decision to require masks was the number of students and staff in quarantine.
The increased quarantines in the district come as the Graham County Health Department has announced a drastic increase in case numbers locally, saying that the county was well on its way to another surge.
The health department also stated that the county’s most vulnerable population was its children, who are currently outpacing those aged 65 or older in total COVID-19 cases. The health department is currently offering the Pfizer vaccine for ages 5-11.
Vaccines are available at the health department, Tallulah Health Clinic and Walgreens.