DCSD goal: No shutdowns
By Bobby Bryant, Editor
Six weeks into the COVID-haunted new school year, the Darlington County School District hasn’t had to close any schools, and Education Superintendent Tim Newman hopes he can keep it that way. “My goal is to get us through this without having to shut schools down … and work us through this, keeping our teachers in the buildings and keeping as many students as we possibly can,” Newman told the county school board Sept. 13. “The numbers are trending down, so whatever we have been doing appears to be the right thing.” “We have been very fortunate in that we have not had to shut down any schools,” Newman said. The district has had to quarantine “some classrooms,” primarily those with younger students. Newman said some 4K or 5K classrooms and special education classrooms have had to be quarantined. As far as shutdowns, Newman said, “We got close a couple of times with a couple of schools. Because it’s all based on did we have enough adults to watch students, to keep students safe, from a supervision standpoint. “There were a couple of panicked phone calls that I’ve had from a few principals where they said, ‘If I lose one more person, I hope we can hold this together.’ Thankfully, we didn’t lose that other person. They’ve done a great job of shifting resources, pulling people into the mix.” Newman did not provide total numbers of students who’ve been infected or quarantined, but he said: “We’ve completed six weeks of school. … Our peak was approximately three weeks ago, both for positive cases and for quarantines. Two weeks ago, we saw a decline of about 25 percent. … This past week we had another decline of approximately 25 percent.” “Overall, the number that we are seeing and experiencing are trending downward. Our hope and desire is that that continues,” Newman said. “ … As long as our numbers are trending down, we need to hold the course.” About 330 total COVID tests were conducted the previous week, Newman told the board, and the district had about a 10 percent positivity rate. That’s “still high,” Newman said, but at the state level they have been recording 12-15 percent. “We’d like to see that below 5 percent.” Newman said that based on his early reviews of standardized test scores, it’s apparent that COVID disruptions have been taking a toll in the district. “The state scores dropped. Our district scores dropped.” The biggest drops, Newman said, have been in middle schools. He will go over the numbers in more detail at a school board work session later this month.