learning. File photo by Mike Dougherty/VTDigger
The number of Covid-19 cases in Vermont schools has been steadily rising since the start of the year — and, last week, reached a record high of 71. That’s despite statewide case numbers finally beginning to decline.
On Tuesday, the state reported 594 total cases of the virus in kindergarten through grade 12 during this school year, including 329 since Jan. 1. The number refers to every individual — student or adult — who came to school while infectious. Not necessarily included are instances in which someone caught the virus in a K-12 setting.
A spike in Franklin County is partly to blame. All 10 schools in the Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union went remote this week.
The rising case numbers come as state officials press local districts to expand in-person learning and relax mitigation measures around youth sports and music programs. Ben Truman, a spokesperson for the Vermont Department of Health, said authorities believe “it is too early to know whether this is a trend or an anomaly in the data,” but that they did not “anticipate any impact on policy” for the time being.
Don Tinney, president of the Vermont-National Education Association, said the trend was “certainly a cause for concern.” He speculated that the upward tick could be tied to in-person instruction — or simply reflect outbreaks in certain communities bleeding into school systems.
“My understanding is that the presence of the virus or cases in schools is fairly consistent with community spread,” the teachers’ union president said. “I’m not sure if that’s the same in this case.”
While cases have been decreasing gradually statewide, Truman said that case counts nevertheless remained high and Vermont was still experiencing “a significant amount of community spread.”
“It is not necessarily surprising that we are still seeing a relatively high number of cases in schools,” Truman said. He also noted that in certain parts of the state — principally Franklin County — cases have been going up. He said an outbreak there in part explained the recent uptick in schools.
All 10 schools in the Franklin Northeast Supervisory Union went remote this week, according to superintendent Lynn Cota. The district reported 19 cases of Covid-19 last week. That’s almost half the total number of cases it reported this school year.
Franklin Northeast serves the towns of Bakersfield, Berkshire, Enosburg, Montgomery, Richford and Sheldon. Three of those towns currently have some of the highest infection rates in the state. Cota said five of the FNESU’s schools went remote because of the case increase. The other half were facing quarantine-related staffing shortages, she said.
“I feel strongly that this is the right preemptive decision at this time in order to prevent any further spread of this virus,” she said in a screencast posted last week to the school district’s Facebook page. Cota also pleaded with community members to adhere to Covid-19 mitigation measures such as masking, testing and social distancing.
Vermont’s second wave has been enormously disruptive to schools. Only seven schools went remote in September due to cases, and just 13 did so in October, according to monthly data published by the Agency of Education. That number soared to 48 in November and remained high in December with 33 schools, and in January with 39, despite lengthy school breaks around the holidays. No such data is available yet for February.
Correction: An earlier version of this story inaccurately described the time period during which the 594 cases in kindergarten through grade 12 occurred. It was this school year.
