(TNS) — As a surge of coronavirus cases impacts communities across the state, several
Michigan school districts are weighing or have already pivoted entirely to remote learning to slow the spread.
Michigan shattered its daily COVID-19 case record again Thursday adding 5,710 and 51 deaths in a day, joining other Midwestern states reporting an explosion of cases. Friday's caseload is also expected to be outstanding, marking the fourth consecutive week of record cases.
Due to the rising number of positive cases in
Grosse Pointe Public Schools, the district announced Friday it will also be pivoting back to remove learning for all students.
Young Fives to fifth-grade students currently in hybrid instruction, along with students in special education programs, will return virtual instruction starting Monday, the district said.
Grosse Pointe has 220 students and 47 staff members in quarantine. There are an additional 10 classrooms shut down in quarantine, officials said, adding they continue to deal with significant staffing issues.
"Similar to districts across the state, we simply do not have enough substitutes to cover the vacancies for teachers and staff who are self-quarantining due to COVID-19 exposure," the district said.
In August, Grosse Pointe parents rallied for in-person learning. More than 100 people, including families who brought their young children and dogs, marched about three-quarters of a mile to protest the school system's initial decision to start students in remote learning.
Meanwhile,
Keith Logsdon
, president of
Berkley Schools Board of Education, notified parents Tuesday that the district's phase-in plan that was set to begin on Monday is on hold.
The district planned to phase in elementary students first until the
Oakland County health department changed the COVID-19 Risk Determination Level to an "E" category, the highest risk level on their Guidance for In-Person Instruction chart.
"When we approved the elementary return plan, the risk level was a 'C,' and the 7-day daily case average per million count was 46 compared to over 150 last Friday, tripling the cases in less than two weeks," said Logsdon, adding the board would not return until the risk reached at least a D grading.
Elsewhere in
Oakland County, officials with
Bloomfield Hills Schools
say they will decide Friday whether to switch classes to virtual learning from in-person instruction because of the increase in Michigan COVID-19 cases.
The school district's
Board of Education will hold an emergency meeting to vote on the move,
Pat Watson
,
Bloomfield Hills Schools'
superintendent, said in a Thursday email to parents.
"While we are disappointed to need to be returning to fully remote teaching and learning, we will continue to provide instruction and services to meet the needs of all learners as best as possible during this challenging public health crisis," Watson said in the email. "We greatly appreciate your partnership and support."
If the board approves the measure,
Bloomfield Hills Schools
will be the second
Oakland County school district to switch to distance learning this week. The
West Bloomfield School District said Monday it would temporarily make the switch due to a spike in COVID-19 cases.
On Wednesday,
Bloomfield Hills School officials notified parents that it had two positive COVID-19 staff cases at its
Fox Hills preschool, one positive student case at its
International Academy and one positive staff case at
East Hills Middle School.
Also Wednesday, the district switched to full distance learning at
Bloomfield Hills High School after a number of teachers had to quarantine as a precaution.
On Monday, the
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported 45 COVID-19 outbreaks in
Michigan pre-kindergarten through grade 12 schools and universities as of last week.
The highest number of new and ongoing outbreaks was in
Kent County, where
Grand Rapids is the county seat.
The data come from COVID-19 outbreaks reported by local health departments each week to the state health department as of the previous Thursday. An outbreak is defined as two or more COVID-19 cases among people who are from different households but may have shared exposure.
The largest outbreak in one school occurred at
Benzie Central Community Schools in
Benzonia, a village in the northwest part of the state, about 30 miles southwest of
Traverse City. There, 11 cases were reported among students.
Last week,
Flint Community Schools announced it would also return to virtual learning per recommendations of the
Genesee County Health Department. Since
Oct. 16, there have been 49 new cases.
On
Sept. 20, the county had a 2.1% positivity rating. By
Oct. 1, the positivity rate reached 4.3% and currently sits at 6.5%, "which is a significant factor in our discussions surrounding our learning options moving forward," officials said in a notice to parents.
After more than a month of entirely remote learning,
Saginaw Public Schools Superintendent
Ramont Roberts
said the district had also reversed its plan to return in-person this week due to the spike.
Pre-kindergarten through second grade was set to return to classes in-person on
Nov. 2; however, he said in a letter to the district Sunday that students will continue its online Zoom model. He also recommended to the school board that all students remain online until the end of the first semester.
Last week,
Saginaw County was above a 7.2% positivity rate, a 3% increase from the previous week, Roberts noted.
Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state's chief medical executive, said Thursday that she's "very concerned" about what she's seeing across
Michigan. The state's averaging 261 cases per million people, and new cases are five times the amount recorded in early September.
"We've performed 43,000 diagnostic tests per day over the past week; however, the percent of those tests that are coming back positive is increasing and is 7.5% and has been increasing for the past five weeks," Khaldun said. Experts prefer a positivity rate of 3% as a benchmark to show the spread is limited.
Northville Public Schools Superintendent
Mary K. Gallagher
said while the district successfully returned to in-person learning option in October, the past several days have resulted in a large, and growing number of student quarantines from outside exposure.
The district is connected with two positive cases and more than 75 students are in quarantine. Should the spread continue, the district will have to follow stricter actions, she said.
"Several homecoming parties, including a party bus, were reported during contact tracing, with reportedly little evidence of mask-wearing or physical distancing," said Gallagher, urging parents to take precaution.
"Contact tracing also revealed that, in some cases, students who were supposed to be quarantined due to a family exposure still participated in out-of-school activities. The quarantines have impacted students at
Northville High School, along with siblings at our middle and elementary schools."
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