SE Atlanta News

Brantley County Middle School issued the following announcement on Aug. 16

The Brantley County School System is committed to offering opportunities for academic excellence in a learning environment that is safe, supportive and encouraging to the young people of Brantley County.  

At this time, we are experiencing challenges in our transportation department as we are short bus drivers and will need to transition to an  A/B schedule for all students for the next 3 weeks. 

• Students will not come to school tomorrow (8/17/21) or this Wednesday (8/18/21) while we give our staff time to make plans for the new A/B schedule. 
• Beginning Thursday, August 19th - we will implement the A/B schedule where ½ the students will come to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays while the other ½ of the students will come to school on Wednesdays and Fridays. 
• You will receive information on Tuesday as to whether the children in your home will go to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays or on Wednesdays and Fridays while implementing the A/B schedule. 
• During the next 3 weeks, students will participate in distance learning on Mondays.  

Tentative Student Attendance Calendar 

Thursday, August 19th thru Friday, September 3rd

Monday	Tues/Thurs	Wed/Fri
All Students Distance Learning (Teachers will provide information on Thurs or Fri for the next week’s work.)	“A Schedule” Students will attend school as usual. “B Schedule” Students will have work at home.	“B Schedule” Students will attend school as usual. “A Schedule” Students will have work at home.

Our tentative plan will be to return to a normal 5-day in person learning schedule on Wednesday, September 8th, after the Labor Day holiday (no school for students on September 6th or 7th). As we get closer to this Labor Day weekend, we will make a decision after reviewing the current data at that time.  Although the main reason we are transitioning to the A/B schedule is because we are short bus drivers, the smaller numbers in classrooms and at lunch time will help us spread students out more. Our employees are committed to implementing the safety measures of encouraging students to wash their hands often, spreading students out when possible, and cleaning/disinfecting often.  Those are the same strategies that helped us keep our school doors open last year.  If you have questions, please call your school office number if you do not find your answer in the frequently asked questions below.

Frequently Asked Questions Below:

How can parents help? 

1. Continue monitoring your child’s health each morning and do not send your child to school if you notice any new symptoms. 
2. If you are able to drive your child(ren) to or from school over the next several weeks, it would be greatly appreciated and helpful as we are short bus drivers right now.

Are the schools quarantining the close contacts related to a positive COVID case?

YES, our administrators and nurses are working diligently to contact trace each positive COVID case that is reported.  The number of students/employees that have to go home to quarantine as close contacts differs with each individual positive COVID case.  It all depends on how many students/employees have been within 3ft of the positive person for more than 15 minutes.  While GA DPH is allowing schools the flexibility to not quarantine direct exposures from the school setting in order to support in-person learning, the Brantley County School System has decided to continue close contact quarantine until the COVID spike decreases. 

Why does the school sometimes quarantine a whole class of students for one positive COVID case and sometimes just a handful of students?

The number of students that will have to quarantine as close contacts to a confirmed positive case depends on what happened in class the previous two days.  In some instances, the teacher was able to spread the students out  more that day and keep them in groups where only a small group would have to quarantine if one of the students were to get COVID.  In other instances, the class may have had some activities that made it difficult to be sure kids were separated. Therefore, in an abundance of caution, the whole class would be quarantined as close contacts. 

Will my child have to quarantine as a close contact if he/she has had COVID in the last 3 months or has been vaccinated?

No.  Students and employees that have received the COVID vaccination OR have had a confirmed case of COVID in the last 3 months will not have to quarantine per CDC and GA DPH guidelines. 

Are the number of COVID cases in the schools published?

Yes - each weekend, the number of COVID cases for the previous week are posted to the School System Website - brantley.k12.ga.us   You can access the data by clicking on the COVID tab at the top of the page.

Original source can be found here.