Local school systems discuss Coronavirus plans

(PELHAM, GA)- With the announcement coming late Wednesday afternoon that cases of COVID-19 Coronavirus had been found in Albany, local health officials have been urging the public to take care of themselves to stop the virus from spreading.

Phoebe Chief Medical Officer, Dr Steven Kitchen says, ”We want to make sure that we’re prepared in any of our facilities to receive a patient who may be coming with COVID-19 symptoms.”

Around the same time that the announcement was made, local school systems started getting the word out.

In Pelham, Superintendent, Floyd fort announced Wednesday that the city’s schools would be shuttered for the remainder of the week to be disinfected.

“To our knowledge, no one has exhibited any symptoms. The Pelham City Schools Charter System will be taking a proactive stance in order to sanitize our buildings and buses,” said Fort in a Facebook post from the school system.

Students in Pelham wont return to classes until March 17th.

While Pelham City Schools has already shuttered their system, others are taking precautionary steps for now.

School systems in Lee, Colquitt, Tift and Worth County School Systems have already sent out notices to families about keeping the health of students and faculty in mind.

Dougherty County Superintendent, Kenneth Dyer spoke Thursday afternoon about a contingency plan for the school system, should they have to close down schools in the event of a Coronavirus infection.

Superintendent Dyer said Thursday afternoon, ”All of our students K through two have iPads, and three through 12 have Chromebooks. And we also have one thousand hotspots for those students who don’t have internet at home to checkout and use if necessary.”

While many of the school systems haven’t reached the option of shutting down on-site learning, superintendent dyer says from experience, the best thing any school system can do at this point is have a plan in place.

“This is not the first time we’ve experienced some type of crisis or emergency in our community from hurricanes to tornadoes to floods. And so we know to always be prepared and we try our best to be prepared,” says Dyer.

Superintendent Dyer says that should they have to cancel classes for a Coronavirus infection, they have a re-structured schedule for a long term break.