Ingomar, East Union schools switch to virtual schedule through Thanksgiving holiday

Union County School Superintendent Russell Taylor confirmed to NEMiss.news that Ingomar Attendance Center will switch to its virtual class schedule through Thanksgiving holiday week.

East Union Attendance Center has been on a virtual schedule since this past week and will stay on it through Thanksgiving as well.

“We’ve had an increase in cases, but no outbreaks,” Taylor said.

The superintendent said the guideline he uses in deciding whether to go to the virtual schedule is if one percent of the students test positive or 10 percent of the students require quarantine.

“We have seen a rise in the number of positive cases since November,” he said, and having Thanksgiving next week made the call to go virtual easier.

“Of course Thanksgiving could lead to more or to less infections,” he said.

“We had no positive cases in three months and now seven in one week,” he said.

Taylor did not have access to his records when this interview occurred but he thought East Union currently had 15 positive cases, Ingomar 8, Myrtle 5 and West Union 3.

Numbers are being posted on the school district website, Taylor said.

“We’ve had more quarantines than positives,” he said.

He is worried about the future trend as much as anything. “The state numbers have been the highest since the peak in August,” he said. Numbers were down in September and October but, anecdotally at least, there are a lot more cases in Union County.

The decision will make it a little easier on teachers, only having to deal with one teaching method for everyone as they follow the virtual schedule. And, of course, officials hope this will reduce infections.

He plans to send out a school update on Friday to give some idea of what they are facing.

For now, he said, all schools are scheduled to return to traditional classes Nov. 30 after Thanksgiving.

Below is a chart showing the number of positive tests for staff and for students in the year so far, along with the total number quarantined since the start of the year based on state health department figures through Nov. 13.