The doors to Pea Ridge Schools have stayed open despite increased numbers of positive covid-19 cases.
"We sent a lot home on Friday," superintendent Keith Martin said, attributing that to the number of people using home covid tests made available free from the Pea Ridge Community Library. "We received about 35 after school started on Friday because of all the home kits. Nobody was going the traditional way, going to a clinic."
"The numbers for Thursday and Friday really went up," he said.
There were 55 positive cases of covid-19 for students reported to the schools for Friday and Sunday, with the highest number of students quarantined 261 on Friday. Of those, 186 were quarantined from contact tracing at schools and 75 were quarantined because of contact out of school.
Monday's numbers had decreased with 42 positive cases and a total of 140 quarantined -- 98 from school contact, 64 from out of school contact.
Martin estimated numbers to plummet by midweek barring any additional positive cases.
"Wednesday is the day our numbers truly plummet," he said.
By Tuesday, without any additional positive cases reported, there should be 30 positive cases (based on current numbers and time of isolation) with 104 quarantined -- 70 from school contact and 34 from outside contact.
By Wednesday, those numbers should be be six positive cases with 37 quarantined -- 11 from school contact and 26 from outside.
"That's if no one else comes up positive," Martin said. "This three-day break allows us time. There won't be as much contact tracing. The numbers are projected to go down dramatically."
"That's what's so crazy about these numbers," he said, explaining that school officials try to report between 8 and 10 a.m. which allows time for the numbers from the previous day to "fall off" and add new numbers from the day before.
"It's been very stressful!" Martin said. "Our staff has done an amazing job with contact tracing and keeping our doors open. The very best place for our kids is up here. We're very fortunate to have the staff to keep the doors open."
"It's very hard on parents to shut the doors -- or the district -- down," he said.
Finding substitute teachers has been difficult, Martin said.
The numbers this year are higher than last year at the same time.
"They (the numbers) went up more this time when we opened up for the school year. This one has had more cases," he said. "We're seeing that throughout the state. Our school is just reflecting what every one is seeing. It's not unique to Pea Ridge."
Martin said school guidelines governing quarantine have changed based on state guidelines.
"The state has given out guidance on that," Martin said, recalling the state of emergency declared in March of 2020 by the governor. "We're not under that anymore... the alternative learning (AMI) days allow closing for 10 days, but those include sickness, power outages, snow days. Anything beyond that has to be made up."
Martin said the specifics of the guidelines are available on the school district web site.
"The CDC lessened the time of quarantine allowing a person who doesn't have symptoms to return after day 5 wearing a mask," he said. "The first week we were back from Christmas break, we were under the guidelines of 10 days for quarantine and isolation. That Thursday of the first week the new guidelines came out requiring five days for those who were symptom free."
More News
NoneCovid-19 reports at Pea Ridge Schools
There are 2,330 students enrolled in the Pea Ridge School District. There are 287 members of staff.
Date^Current positive^School-related quarantine^non-school related quarantine
Students
1/11^26^129^73
1/12^38^145^81
1/13^39^130^79
1/14^55^186^75
1/16^55^136^70
1/17^42^98^64
Staff
1/11^19^x^x
1/12^11X^x
1/13^13^x^x
1/14^12^x^x
1/16^13^x^x
1/17^9^x^x
*numbers less than 5 will be represented by an X.
Data from Pea Ridge School District.