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The post Marshall Ramsey: Hail to the Chief appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Parker Briden, a Missouri native who came to Mississippi in 2019 to work on Tate Reeves’ successful gubernatorial campaign and stayed on as a senior staffer for several months after Reeves was sworn into office, has been tapped by Reeves to be his next chief of staff.

Briden, 27, will assume the pivotal position as Reeves’ gubernatorial staff appears to be in a state of flux. In recent months, there has been substantial upheaval in Reeves’ staff, including former chief of staff Brad White leaving to become the executive director of the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Since Reeves took office in January 2020, at least four senior staffers and at least five junior policy staffers have departed.

When White left in June, the governor announced that Liz Welch, the executive director of the Department of Finance and Administration and a longtime Reeves adviser, would take on the added responsibility of interim chief of staff.

Briden had previously served as deputy chief of staff for external affairs on Reeves’ gubernatorial staff before leaving to work as a political consultant to Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno in Ohio.

“Parker has been a trusted partner throughout my time as governor,” Reeves said in a press release. “He will be a highly effective leader and adviser as we work to serve the people of Mississippi.”

In the news release, Briden said, “I am honored and excited to work for the people of Mississippi and Gov. Tate Reeves again. My aspiration is to bring a fraction of the ability and integrity of my predecessors and colleagues to the job. The top responsibility is to be an honest broker for the governor and every partner throughout state government, the Legislature and private enterprise as we work together to serve this great state.”

Reeves credited Briden for being a key adviser on such issues as COVID-19 and other emergencies during his tenure.

Briden, a graduate of the University of Missouri, worked in multiple states on political campaigns and was the communications director for former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned in 2018 amid multiple scandals.

During the 2019 gubernatorial campaign, Briden was Reeves’ primary spokesperson.

The post Gov. Reeves brings former senior staffer back to Mississippi as chief of staff appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A group of DeSoto County School District parents who are also physicians say their district — the largest in Mississippi — has ignored their advice on COVID-19 policies and has not been transparent or inclusive in setting its protocols, which include no mask requirement for students and teachers.

These doctors mostly work at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. The hospital treats children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases — the very conditions that make them more susceptible to severe illness and outcomes from COVID-19. 

As parents, they say they are seeing the effects of the district’s choices in their own homes.

Dr. Jessica Gartrell spoke with Mississippi Today while her kindergartener and third grader were home sick with COVID-19. 

“My 5-year-old is very sick. He has high fever, he’s shaking like crazy, curled up in the fetal position — he’s miserable,” said Gartrell, a board certified pediatrician and pediatric hematologist/oncologist.

As a doctor, she knows the risk for severe outcomes if a child contracts COVID-19: hospitalization, pneumonia, and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS-C), a serious and sometimes fatal condition in children that usually occurs four to six weeks after COVID infection.

But DeSoto County remains one of only 16 districts in the state that does not currently require masks in school buildings.

The district said in an emailed statement to Mississippi Today that it considered advice from medical professionals in developing its protocols for the school year and received inconsistent medical guidance and “different viewpoints.”

But when asked which medical professionals provided guidance that differs from recommendations by the Mississippi State Department of Health and other major medical groups in the state, district officials wouldn’t name them. Superintendent Cory Uselton referred the question to school board attorney Jim Keith. 

Keith said the district took into consideration input from community members via its dedicated COVID-19 email address. Some of that input was from doctors and other health care professionals in the community, he said. 

“(Some of those doctors) don’t want to be on the forefront, they just simply provided their input and said, ‘School district, you make the decision,’” Keith said. 

This year, Gov. Tate Reeves did not issue a mask mandate in schools as he did last year. This meant the decision, which has become a contentious political hot potato, was tossed into the laps of superintendents and school board members.

Gartrell, along with fellow parents and St. Jude physicians Drs. Matthew Rees and Michael McNeil, also want to know who these medical professionals are. 

“The pediatrics community in northern Mississippi has a unified voice on this (masking). This is what works: wearing masks when you can’t be socially distanced and getting vaccinated if you’re able,” said McNeil, a pediatrician and pediatric hematology-oncology fellow at St. Jude. “The district keeps saying, ‘There are a lot of opinions on both sides,’ but what we are recommending is based on evidence. That is not opinion.”

Dr. Desh Sidhu, a pediatrician and a board member of the state’s pediatrician association, has been practicing in the DeSoto County area for more than 40 years. He says he has tried repeatedly to talk to the superintendent and other district officials to no avail. 

He even offered to provide vaccinations for eligible students in the schools. 

“All the district would need to do is get permission from the parents and we will take care of everything else — the logistics, the paperwork, the staff, everything,” Sidhu said. “But we have just met a dead end.”

The district said it has held no vaccination drives or events to date. 

As a mother, Gartrell is heartbroken by the position she finds herself in. In an effort to keep her 3-year-old daughter and herself safe, she can’t care for her ill 5-year-old the way she wants.

“I want to hold him and take care of him and love on him. Instead I’m going in with a mask, a face shield and keeping my distance,” she said. “And I’m scared.” 

She said while she believes teachers and nurses are doing their best, their hands are tied by district policy. When her older son started running fever at school and complaining of a sore throat, he was sent back to class after a second thermometer showed he didn’t have fever — despite earlier high temperature readings, Gartrell said.

While her son wears a mask in school per her and her husband’s wishes, he went out to recess unmasked and played football with other children. By the time he was standing in the car rider line, his temperature had spiked to nearly 103 degrees, his mom said.

Despite a positive result from an at-home test, Gartrell said, she was told they could only accept a result from an in-office test, which she wasn’t able to get until days later amid a nationwide shortage of rapid tests and a spike in testing throughout the state.

“I was told they were not allowed to accept an at-home test and urged me that as soon as I could get the in-office test to notify them immediately as he had potentially exposed other children,” she said. 

Keith, the school board attorney, said he advised the district not to accept results from any at-home tests because the school does not know the fidelity with which the test was administered or the accuracy of the test used.  

Gartrell and several other pediatricians who spoke to Mississippi Today said this policy needs to be reconsidered as potentially exposed children are not being quarantined in real time.

“While a negative result on a home test does not rule out a COVID infection, they are very reliable when they show a positive result. Especially with the shortage of rapid tests, this policy should be revisited,” she said. 

Gartrell is one of several doctors in the area who have been reaching out to the school district and school board members for more than a month. The district set up a COVID-specific email address to receive feedback from parents, so Gartrell and others began directing their questions and concerns there before the school year began. 

Rees, a pediatric hematology/oncology fellow at St. Jude, is a parent of four children, three of which attend schools in the district. He also spoke to Mississippi Today after his daughter tested positive for the virus which then spread to his other daughter, his wife and him.

While the children have fared well, Rees, who has type 1 diabetes, was riddled by body aches, sore throat, congestion and a cough for five days and unable to do much in the way of work or caretaking. His wife recently had to take a trip to the emergency room after experiencing chest pain, and despite improvement after two weeks, she is still not back to “full speed,” he said.

“One common thing people say is, ‘Kids don’t get COVID and don’t spread it,’ but I would beg to differ,” he said.

Rees said he started reaching out via the district’s COVID email address and through one of his children’s principals in July when it became apparent there would be no statewide mask mandate or requirements in schools. He even offered to help create the district’s COVID-19 response plan and coordinate a question and answer session with parents.

He received a boilerplate response telling him his feedback was received and the district would be releasing its back-to-school plan soon. 

When he saw the plan, he was shocked.

“The only thing it said about masking was one paragraph hidden in the middle of it, which started out with, ‘There will be no mask mandate,’” he said. It did not mention vaccinations other than detailing when unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals must be tested and quarantined, per state health department guidelines.

It continued to list protocols such as cleaning procedures, social distancing and the replacement of water fountains with bottled water stations. 

“I wrote back and said it baffles me that the best interventions we possibly have barely even get mentioned … while we’re at the same time making plans, investing resources in replacing water fountains,” Rees said. “Why not also use the things that are going to have a much bigger impact?” 

Officials with the DeSoto County School District said the new plan was created by Assistant Superintendent Lucy Hasselman. 

“Feedback from the COVID-19 email address was considered, and the document was reviewed by school administrators and members of the Central Services staff before it was recommended to the school board,” the district said in an email.

Hernando High School and Lewisburg Middle School are currently operating entirely virtually due to COVID-19 infections and quarantine numbers. Lewisburg, which transitioned to virtual learning on Thursday of last week, had 53 students test positive for the virus last week. Nearly 300 were quarantined, Mississippi State Department of Health data shows. 

The high school transitioned to virtual learning on Aug. 17 before transitioning to a mixture of in-person and virtual learning on Aug. 25. Eighty-six students at the high school have tested positive for COVID-19 since school began on Aug. 5.

McNeil is also a pediatric hematology-oncology fellow at St. Jude and the father of three kids, two of which are in the district. When he has attempted to talk to district officials, he’s been met with “radio silence.”

He says he’s operating with a daily sense of dread, knowing that it’s “only a matter of time” before his children get the virus.

“My fourth grader and kindergartener are one of the few kids in their classes with masks on,” he said. 

He says the experience of trying to work with the district has been frustrating on many levels. 

“If you want to ignore my medical training and my experience and the evidence, that’s one thing,” said McNeil. “But when you ignore me as a parent, that’s a whole other thing.”

The post Pediatrician parents say Mississippi’s largest school district is ignoring their COVID advice appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Read Geoff Pender’s analysis of this story, too.

The post Marshall Ramsey: The Observer appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today is pleased to announce that journalist Julia James has joined the newsroom as a poverty and breaking news reporter.

James, a native of Mandeville, Louisiana, recently completed an investigative reporting internship with Mississippi Today. In that role, she closely covered the sprawling welfare scandal and public education. She will continue that work, as well as working closely with Mississippi Today’s breaking news team.

James is a 2021 graduate of the University of Mississippi, where she studied journalism and public policy and was in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. She has been published in The New York Times, Mississippi Today, and Clarion Ledger.

“When I moved to attend college, I was searching for a Mississippi newspaper that I could depend on. I quickly got the sense from people I trusted, they trusted Mississippi Today,” James said. “Being able to join the newsroom as an intern and learn from the reporters I admired has been such an invaluable experience, one that I’m excited to continue as a full-time reporter.”

James interned with the Mississippi Center for Justice in 2020 and the Prison-to-College Pipeline Program (PTCPP) from 2018-2019. While working with the PTCPP, she interviewed more than 30 students about their experiences in the program and created a website and newsletter for the student’s writing projects.

“From the second she stepped in our newsroom, Julia made it clear to all of us that she was eager and able to dive into some of the state’s most pressing problems and hold public officials accountable for them,” said Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today’s Editor-in-Chief. “In Mississippi, the poorest state in America, diving into policies around poverty, in particular, couldn’t be more critical. Julia is just the right person to serve Mississippians in this way.”

James will continue working closely with Mississippi Today investigative reporter Anna Wolfe.

The post Julia James joins Mississippi Today newsroom appeared first on Mississippi Today.

GREENVILLE — Little more than a half century ago, Mississippi’s public high schools, forced by federal law, integrated. Private schools, including Greenville Christian School, sprang up all over the state. You know why. White parents didn’t want their children to go to school — or play sports — with Black children.

A new, then-strictly segregated sports league was formed. The Mississippi Private School Association (MPSA) has since become the Mid-South Association of Independent Schools (MAIS). And now, five decades later, the best football team in the league — and perhaps the best in the league’s history — is Greenville Christian, an all-Black team.

With just 35 players on the roster and training in spartan facilities, the Greenville Christian Saints opened this season on the road with a 58-32 trouncing of Madison-Ridgeland Academy, two-time defending MAIS 6A state champions. A week later, the Saints returned to the Jackson area and ransacked traditional academy powerhouse Jackson Prep 48-13. It was the worst home defeat in Prep history. Last Friday night, Greenville Christian clobbered J.Z. George High School of North Carrollton, a Class 2A public school, 58-0.

In three games, all on the road, the Saints have out-scored foes 164-45. Uber-talented quarterback D.J. Smith has thrown for 1,063 yards and 12 touchdowns. Wide receiver Chris Bell, a Southern Miss commitment, has snagged 14 of those throws for 357 yards and six touchdowns and also returned a punt for a score. Cornerback J Elam, a Mississippi State commitment, has intercepted four passes and returned a punt for a touchdown. Marlon Palmer, a muscular fireplug of a running back, has rambled for 241 yards and four touchdowns on just 29 carries.

This Thursday, Greenville Christian will make a seven-hour bus ride to play Collins Hill High of Suwanee, Ga., on Friday night. Collins Hill, the top-ranked team in Georgia and No. 7 ranked team in America in the USA Today rankings, has more than 3,000 students (grades 9-12). Greenville Christian has just 260 students (grades K-12).

A mismatch?

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” says Greenville Christian’s 29-year-old head coach Jon Reed McLendon, who just 12 years ago played both ways on the line for Greenville Christian. “We just hope to go over there and represent our school and our state well.”

MRA’s Herbert Davis, one of the most highly respected coaches in Mississippi, believes they will. Davis says the Saints could compete for the Class 6A state championship in Mississippi’s public school league (MHSAA). Said Davis, “They’d be right there.”

If Greenville Christian’s story sounds far-fetched, you don’t know the half of it. Thirteen months ago, McLendon, the coach, wondered if he could even field a team. When Greenville Christian held its first summer practice in July of 2020, 10 prospective players showed up. When the Saints played their first game (a 27-0 loss to Tri-County Academy), they still had only 20 players, not enough to scrimmage in practice.

But then Greenville High School canceled the 2020 season because of COVID-19. McLendon received a phone call from Greenville quarterback Josh Martin, a junior who wanted to transfer. After meeting with McLendon, Martin did transfer. But he did more than that. He brought several teammates with him.

And those teammates reached out to friends in nearby Greenwood, whose high school wasn’t playing football either. Greenville Christian’s roster quickly grew. Smith, the talented quarterback, came from Greenwood. Martin moved to wide receiver. More players came, from Hollandale, from Greenville O’Bannon and even from Yazoo City.

“A lot of us grew up playing against each other,” Martin said. “Now, we’re playing together, almost like an all-star team.”

Since the opening shutout loss last August, the Saints have reeled off 14 straight victories, scoring 50 or more points eight times. They won the MAIS 2020 3A state championship with relative ease, out-scoring teams 122-33 in three playoff games. With most of that roster returning, including 21 seniors, McLendon scheduled much more formidable competition against much larger schools this season. The result? So far, so great.

“Relationships is what brought these new players here,” McLendon says, and then adds, grinning, “Look around. It surely wasn’t the facilities.”

The Greenville Christian weight room is actually a converted temporary classroom building. (Rick Cleveland)

Know this: All those transfers did not come to Greenville Christian because of the facilities. The weight room is an humble, converted classroom building with two aging benches, two old squat racks and minimal weight equipment. The film room doubles as a history classroom, where the linemen squeeze into desk chairs scarcely big enough to hold them. The football field, converted farm land, has a few bleachers and a press box that looks as if it could hold four people, no more.

Normally, the Saints travel in an old bus, currently without air conditioning. They will charter a bus to Georgia.

“Relationships is what brought these new players here,” McLendon says, and then adds, grinning, “Look around. It surely wasn’t the facilities.”

The facilities do work in Greenville Christian’s favor in one way. When the Saints traveled to MRA and Prep, they got a first-hand look at what more modern and vastly more expensive equipment and facilities. Said Martin, the quarterback turned wide receiver, “That just fired us up even more.”

McLendon says he had a few Black classmates and teammates when he played for the Saints a little more than a decade ago. But the makeup of the school and the team hardly resembled what Greenville Christian has become: a private school that closely mirrors its community, about 75% African-American, he said.

McLendon calls the metamorphosis “inevitable.”

“Look at our community,” McLendon says. “If we were going to have an impact our community, if we were going to serve our community, this needed to happen. We are here to serve the entire community. Kids thrive in different environments.”

Besides coaching football and baseball, McLendon teaches three Bible study classes and a physical education class. He is also the offensive coordinator, and when he isn’t teaching or coaching, he is the pastor of New Beginnings Fellowship (formerly Southside Baptist Church). His younger brother, Jordan, is the defensive coordinator and offensive line coach. Justin Leavy, another former Greenville Christian Saint, coaches receivers, coordinates special teams and handles the strength and conditioning program, making do — and then some — with the meager facilities.

Martavis Moore, a Greenville policeman, coaches the Saints defensive backs. Athletic director and head basketball coach Logan Collins also assists in football as a utility coach, says Jon Reed McLendon, “wherever we need him.” McLendon’s mother and sister also teach at the school. Says McLendon, “We are invested here. This is family. This is home.”

PODCAST: Rick and Tyler Cleveland discuss the Greenville Christian phenomenon.

“Home” has become a football powerhouse. And with that have come more challenges. Tuesday brought the news that Northpoint Christian of Southaven, the Saints’ scheduled opponent for Sept. 17, has decided not to play the game. So Jon Reed McLendon used Twitter to broadcast the news that Greenville Christian now needs a game for that date. The first prospective opponent to reply? Defending MHSAA 6A state champion Oak Grove, that’s who. 

Said McLendon, “Now that’s a phone conversation I never expected to have.”

Oak Grove has far more players in its football program than Greenville Christian has male students in its high school. McLendon says he and Oak Grove coach Drew Causey decided to continue discussions about a possible Sept. 17 game following Friday night’s games.

One obvious Greenville Christian concern: depth. The Saints’ first 22 players and top substitutes could play for any high school in the state, which means they could play for any high school anywhere. Several will sign college and junior college scholarships. Depth, however, is shallow. Greenville Christian has no two-deep depth chart because there are only 35 players on the roster. Two or three key injuries would turn an extraordinary team into an ordinary team fairly quickly.

“We’ve been fortunate in that regard, all last season and this season,” McLendon said. “I give Coach Leavy a lot of credit for that because of his conditioning program. Knock on wood, that will continue.”

Meanwhile, here’s a question: Could anyone at Greenville Christian have dreamed this time last year that any of this would happen?

Jon Reed McLendon laughed at the question and answered with one of his own.

Said he, “What do you think?”

Perhaps a better question: Could anyone have dreamed anything like this 52 years ago when Greenville Christian and nearly all the other Mississippi private schools were created?

McLendon wasn’t alive then, but older Mississippians, regardless or race, surely can answer that one: No. Back then, this would not have seemed possible.

Click here for a link to live-stream the Greenville Christian vs. Collins Hill game on Sept. 3.

The post This all-Black team in Mississippi’s private academy league is making history appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Greenville Chrisitan coach Jon Reed McLendon talks about his team’s amazing story and the Cleveland boys discuss the prospects of the state’s college football teams.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: The Greenville Christian phenomenon and college football predictions appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Do you have questions about the ramifications COVID-19 has had on Mississippi’s hospital system and public schools? Get them answered by education and healthcare experts such as Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, Dr. Dan Edney, Dr. Bonita Coleman, Dr. LouAnn Woodward and more at Mississippi Today’s COVID Community Town Hall.

The questions for this event will come straight from our readers. What do you want to know about COVID-19, schools, hospitals or vaccination progress? Submit a question for our panelists using the form below!

Mississippi comedian Rita B. will give welcoming remarks before Mississippi Today editor-in-chief Adam Ganucheau kicks off the event with an intro Q&A with Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Dr. Dan Edney, chief medical director for the Mississippi State Department of Health.

Lead education reporter Kate Royals and healthcare reporter Will Stribling will moderate a panel of education and healthcare professionals that includes Dr. LouAnn Woodward, Vice Chancellor and Dean of the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Edney, along with Bonita Coleman, superintendent of Ocean Springs School District and Mandy Lacy, principal of DeLisle Elementary School. We will also hear from Michelle Henry, a parent in the Jackson Public School District.

This event, presented by Mississippi Today, is sponsored by the Delta Health Alliance and produced in partnership with WJTV.

Read our continuing coverage of COVID-19 or visit our Vaccine Guide for more resources.

Thank you to our sponsor

SUBMIT A QUESTION

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As the delta variant of COVID-19 spreads rapidly in schools across Mississippi, the state board of education recently issued a directive to give school districts flexibility in how they teach their students.

The policy change allows school districts to implement a blend of virtual and in-person learning in an attempt to reduce the number of students in a classroom at one time and stem COVID-19 transmission. Schools may do this until Oct. 31, the policy states.

This was the first major adjustment this school year that allowed flexibility for school districts in the current school year. Starting the school year, districts were required to return their students to in-person learning, and the criteria for a virtual learning option was steep. 

The mid-August decision came after massive virus outbreaks disrupted school just days after students returned to the classroom, despite medical professionals spending weeks warning that the delta variant affected children more than previous virus strains.

In contrast, school districts going into last school year were under a mask mandate issued by Gov. Tate Reeves and had the ability to offer 100% virtual or hybrid learning.

Two weeks after the policy was adopted, Mississippi Today asked several districts across the state how they’re handling it. We found that district-by-district responses differed depending on the beliefs of school leaders and the situations specific to their schools.

While some appreciate this new flexibility, administrators in areas without connectivity say it does little to help them. And parents in districts without any options besides in-person learning are saying it makes no sense — and even going so far as to homeschool their children.

In the Clinton School District, school is taught in person. A group of parents have lobbied the administration for more options but to no avail. Several parents told Mississippi Today they pulled their children out of the district recently.  

Natasha Zinda is the mother of three children in the district who learned virtually last year. She has lupus, so she is at higher risk for serious complications from COVID-19.

“For them to switch it up so suddenly this year while the numbers are higher, and we’re in a more dire situation and hospitals are on the verge of collapse — what the hell, basically?” she said. 

While she hasn’t officially withdrawn her children, she is looking at homeschooling options.

Clinton Public School District Superintendent Andy Schoggin said the district chose not to offer a virtual option for several reasons.

“Last year, we saw that having students inside the classroom not only impacted their academic success in a positive manner, but positively impacted the emotional well-being of our students as well,” he said in a statement. He also pointed to guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics that referred to research showing opening schools does not significantly increase community transmission when safety measures – such as universal mask-wearing – are put in place. 

He said the state’s decision to no longer give schools the flexibility they had last year in regards to meeting the attendance and instructional time requirements in virtual learning impacted their decision. 

“Last year, MDE provided school districts with broad flexibility when it came to what virtual instruction looked like,” he said. “This past April, MDE voted to end those pandemic-related flexibilities.”

When this academic year began, schools could offer virtual learning to students, though they had to meet certain requirements (such as having reliable internet connectivity) if they chose to do so. While only a few have offered that option, more are transitioning to a hybrid schedule, a mixture of in-person and virtual learning in which students alternate days they are on campus. 

Nearby Jackson Public Schools recently approved offering additional virtual options for certain students. Superintendent Errick Greene said he was getting a lot of feedback from concerned families and employees about the surge in COVID-19 cases and the highly transmissible delta variant.

Jackson Public Schools students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade can now learn virtually for the rest of the semester after the board approved the new policy last week. Greene said the district decided to provide the option to those students because they are not eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, which is currently only authorized for ages 12 and older.

Students whose parents opt in to virtual learning must have reliable internet connectivity, ensure regular attendance for the entire instructional day, and sign an acknowledgment of district policy, among others. 

Greene said he and other administrators have been hearing concerns from employees and families about the surge in COVID-19 cases and the safety of young students. 

“Learning in a hybrid model is very difficult for continuity of learning,” said Greene. “We’re opting to focus our adjustments here on the virtual learning option.” 

DeSoto County Schools, which remains a mask-optional district, announced it would transition Hernando High School to a hybrid schedule beginning last week. The high school was operating virtually after what Superintendent Cory Uselton described as a “cluster of cases or potential outbreaks” developed among the student body. 

A middle school in the district is also currently operating on a hybrid schedule. 

But for some rural districts, virtual and hybrid learning are not options, according to administrators.

In the Smith County School District, the board decided to shut the schools down entirely for a two-week period and make up the days at another time. Smith County School District Superintendent Nick Hillman said the reason for that is because so many children don’t have reliable internet connectivity and his belief that virtual learning is not effective for some.

“Virtual is just not the best thing for us to do. Even if you have internet, elementary kids have to be taught — they’re not self learners like older kids,” said Hillman, who estimates about half of the students in the district don’t have internet at home. 

The district hasn’t invested in hot spots because it “doesn’t do any good unless you have cell phone service,” he continued. “It just wouldn’t work well in this area.” 

He’s hopeful the two-week break will slow down the spread of COVID-19, though he knows there is a risk of students gathering in groups regardless. 

Lincoln County School District Superintendent has said virtual learning is not an option for his district, but two school systems recently transitioned to a hybrid model due to COVID-19 outbreaks and resulting quarantines. 

While not all districts can implement this without issue,the blend of in-person and virtual learning aims to reduce the number of students in a building at one time and hopefully slow transmission of the fast-spreading delta variant.

“The penetration of this virus knows no boundaries,” said Ronnie McGehee, a member of the State Board of Education and former superintendent of schools in Madison County. “… To continue instruction, educators need the flexibility to protect their communities.”

The post Some schools look to hybrid schedules to stem COVID-19 spread in students appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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