By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.—Paris Special Schools District Director of Schools Dr. Norma Gerrell said the decision Sunday night to close Pre-Kindergarten through 8th grades until November 30 was not taken lightly.
Speaking at Tuesday evening’s PSSD board meeting, Dr. Gerrell said the COVID-19 situation is a very fluid one, which often changes on a daily basis. The decision “was not easy on teachers, parents and students and we didn’t take it lightly. We understand how many parents have child care issues, but when we went up drastically to almost 70 (positive) cases in a day, I became very concerned. Not just for our students, but we didn’t have the number of staff to deal effectively with having school open.”
A handful of parents attended the meeting and were concerned with the timing of the announcement on closing until November 30.
“This is never an easy decision to make, to make a change like this at the spur of the moment,” she said, noting that the public may not be aware of the full ramifications of how COVID-19 is affecting school districts and their personnel. “We’ve had almost 40 percent of our employees in quarantine” at different times and 13 employees have been in quarantine more than once.
Dr. Gerrell said, “It’s a constantly changing metamorphosis that we go through on a daily basis.” School officials must keep track of the number of active and positive cases in their districts. “You have to watch it continually. We work with the COVID team in the county and listen very closely to what is going on in the medical community. And now West Tennessee Regional Health is asking us to have the full COVID test given, not just the rapid test. It’s a constantly moving situation and no size fits all.”
School officials, she said, “realize that children are better served when they are in school. We know their performance is so much better in school.”
Board President Troy Barrow said, “There will be a lot more difficult days ahead of us. Our teachers, our administrators have gone above and beyond and are really struggling to make sure our students are given the opportunities they need. You don’t get into education for the money; you get into it because you love kids. We just ask for a little grace and a little patience. We’re trying to do right for your students.”
Tuesday’s meeting was moved to Inman School so that social distancing could be achieved. Everyone wore masks and everyone’s temperature was taken before entering the meeting.
As announced earlier by school officials, PreK-2 will have a hybrid learning model of virtual (for those already with technology) and packets. 3-8 students are in virtual learning.