Schools urged to go virtual

LENOWISCO and Cumberland Plateau Health District director Dr. Sue Cantrell has recommended that all eight local school districts move their classes to an all-remote environment until after Christmas break.

Cantrell advised that reasons to go virtual are “the high and rising burden of COVID-19, the increasing percent of positive tests locally and regionally and the lack of significant adoption of mitigation measures by many people (including wearing masks, physically distancing, avoiding gatherings with people outside our own households and non-essential travel.”

In a released email sent to Buchanan County schools Superintendent Melanie Hibbitts, Cantrell also asked the school districts included in LENOWISCO and Cumberland Plateau to take into consideration “the immediate area and regional hospital capacity” as Ballad Health recently announced the cancellation of all elective procedures and initiated a search for an additional 350 nurses to keep up with the increasing cases.

“I strongly urge you to consider 100% virtual education from the end of Thanksgiving break until return in January 2021, ideally two weeks post holiday celebration times,” Cantrell said in the Nov. 12 recommendation letter to Hibbitts.

According to Wise County schools Superintendent Greg Mullins, this information was made available to him and his staff recently.

“This information along with a wealth of other data is shared with our board as it becomes available to us,” Mullins wrote by email. “As we do at each meeting, we will be discussing current metrics with our board at our next meeting.”

As no emergency meeting has been scheduled at this time, the next time the Wise County board will meet to discuss health metrics will be Dec. 8.

Wise County schools are currently on a weeklong break for Thanksgiving and slated to return to their in-person four-day weeks on Monday, Nov. 30. The Christmas break is currently scheduled for Dec. 21 until Jan. 2.