OurTupelo

READ: Weekly Update: How many students and teachers have tested positive in your school?

The post Marshall Ramsey: School Prayer 2020 appeared first on Mississippi Today.

As COVID-19 cases in students and teachers hit their highest point yet and schools across the state are forced to close their doors, educators received an additional blow this week from Gov. Tate Reeves.

Reeves released his first fiscal year budget recommendation as governor on Monday and, despite promising to raise teacher pay during his 2019 campaign, made no mention of a salary increase. He did, however, recommend limiting funding to schools that do not teach in-person during the pandemic, and setting aside $3 million for a “Patriotic Education Fund” to combat “revisionist history” that is “poisoning a generation.”

During the 2020 session, it appeared Reeves and legislative leadership were poised to provide teachers a $1,000 salary increase, but those plans were put on hold by an anticipated decrease in state revenue because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The average salary for a public school teacher in Mississippi in 2019 was $45,105, according to the Mississippi Department of Education, and Mississippi’s average salary is the lowest in the nation, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

When Mississippi Today reached out to Reeves’ press secretary after his budget recommendation was released publicly, she said in a statement: “We believe strongly that we can still find the funds to administer teacher pay raises.”

Reeves’ budget recommendation also stated that schools that do not offer in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic should have their funding limited. He said that because their budgets include funds to support services geared to in-person learning such as food service and transportation, school districts providing traditional learning are at “a financial disadvantage.”

“For this reason, I propose limiting funding for school districts unwilling to provide the option of essential classroom instruction,” the recommendation stated. 

State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright said districts were given three options for operating this school year in an effort to allow each district to respond specifically to what was going on in their communities during the pandemic. She also pointed to the $200 million allocated by the Legislature to ensure every student in the state has access to a device and connectivity in order to be able to learn remotely. 

“There is no replacement for a good teacher; however, districts that provide distance learning in accordance with public health guidelines cannot afford to have their funds limited,” Wright said in a statement to Mississippi Today. 

The state’s teachers union released a lengthy statement pointing to what they say is hypocrisy on the part of the governor.

“When we requested statewide COVID reporting standards and guidance on how to address teacher absences during the pandemic, we were told unequivocally that districts best knew how to handle their response,” the statement from the Mississippi Association of Educators read. “Now that some districts have elected to keep buildings closed because they do not have the staff and resources to safely serve their district’s students and families, the governor has decided that they can no longer be trusted to do what’s best.”

The group references the Greenville Public School District, where schools were operating virtually at the beginning of the semester and just this month, after the death of a teacher, announced it would return to virtual learning.

“Following an outbreak, they have decided to return to virtual instruction. And now, after being assured that the state government would play no role in their district’s COVID plan, Governor Reeves is threatening to withhold critically-needed funding when districts need it most,” the statement continued. 

The governor also recommends spending $3 million to create a Patriotic Education Fund. The fund would be used to pay for teaching that combats what Reeves says is “indoctrination in far-left socialist teachings that emphasize America’s shortcomings over the exceptional achievements of this country.”

The fund is reminiscent of the 1776 Commission, an executive order by President Donald Trump establishing a commission to promote “patriotic education” in the United States. This came about in response to the 1619 Project, an initiative launched by the New York Times Magazine in 2019 which “aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”

On Wednesday, Bailey Martin, a spokesperson for Reeves, said the idea was original though the mission is similar to Trump’s. She said the funds could be used as an “addition” to students’ education, though in the budget recommendation Reeves said the program is necessary because “We need to combat the dramatic shift in education.”

“Field trips, after-school clubs, the development of new interesting lesson plans, and more could be funded with these dollars — we are hoping teachers, administrators and non-profits are creative in their ideas of how to take advantage of the opportunity,” she said in a statement. “It would be a great bonus for Mississippi’s youth, in addition to their typical education.”

In response, officials at the Mississippi Department of Education pointed out that the social studies standards, or grade-level goals for learning, were developed by Mississippi teachers and adopted by the State Board of Education in 2018.

“The standards take an unbiased look at U.S. History that allows students to examine multiple viewpoints of a historic event or period. Students explored the pride and resilience of the American spirit through study of civics, democracy, capitalism and major events that have shaped our country,” a statement from the department said. 

Kelly Riley, executive director of the Mississippi Professional Educators, called the governor’s budget recommendation and the statements made to support the creation of the Patriotic Education Fund “extremely disappointing.”

“Mississippi educators are teaching the curriculum standards adopted by the State Board of Education, members of whom Governor Reeves appoints,” Riley said. “Such unfounded generalizations that attack the pedagogy and character of teachers across our state are certainly not an encouraging way to begin the upcoming (legislative) session.” 

Reeves also recommended: $3 million for math coaches across the state; $2 million to train teachers in computer science and coding; and fully funding the School Recognition Program, which financially rewards teachers in A-rated schools and schools that improve a letter grade. 

The 14-member Legislative Budget Committee will make its budget recommendation in December.

The post Key education groups call Gov. Reeves’ budget priorities hypocritical, ‘extremely disappointing’ appeared first on Mississippi Today.

READ: Gov. Reeves budget: Eliminate income tax, skip teacher pay hike, create ‘Patriotic Education Fund’

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

Just 14% of Mississippi’s nursing homes have completed specialty COVID-19 training offered by the federal government to help squash transmission in their facilities.

Twenty-nine out of Mississippi’s 211 nursing homes have taken advantage of the free training as of early November — training at least 50% of their staff in COVID-19 infection control and vaccine distribution — according to new data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which regulates nursing homes.

Nationally about the same percent of all nursing homes have completed the training, so Mississippi is not alone in not ensuring all facilities have sought out and completed the training.

“We’ve provided nursing homes with $20 billion in federal funding, millions of pieces of PPE, free testing machines and supplies, and significant technical assistance and on-the-ground support,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement. “Ultimately, the ownership and management of every nursing (home) must take it on themselves to ensure their staff is fully equipped to keep residents safe. With coronavirus cases increasing across the country and infection control identified as a major issue, we encourage all nursing homes to take advantage of this no-cost opportunity to train their staff.”

The Mississippi facilities that participated in the training fare better than average for the rate of COVID-19 infection, signifying that the training is potentially translating to on-the-ground benefits for staff, and subsequently residents. Facilities that complete the free infection control course have a more than 10% reduction in overall resident cases, compared to Mississippi facilities that haven’t completed the training.

The training comes at a beneficial time for Mississippi nursing homes, where half of all residents have contracted the virus. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs has said better infection control could help Mississippi nursing homes stem spread.

“In places with really good infection control practices, a lot of times we’ll find zero cases,” he said in May, when the state initiated universal testing for all nursing home residents and staff — something that’s up to individual facilities to do now, but fewer than a quarter test every resident after a new case as of Nov. 1, despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending such testing. A little over 40% report conducting surveillance test of asymptomatic residents to gauge exposure.

Currently, the state has the most COVID-19 infections per capita among nursing homes and one in five of those who contract it die.

The Mississippi facilities who have completed the training average about 350 COVID-19 cases per 1,000 residents, compared to the state overall averaging about 400 cases per capita.

Within the 29 that completed it, five have had no reported cases at all — only 23 facilities statewide have never had a known case. Seven additional facilities that took the training have had between one and five cases. Overall, 40% of those facilities that had the training have seen five or fewer cases.

Too, those that completed the safety training have had fewer cases among staff, averaging 18 staff cases per facility, compared to 21 cases statewide.

Further, the death rate among residents who contract the virus is lower at facilities that complete the training — averaging 14% where it’s completed, and 20% across the state.

Of the 12 facilities across the state that have an infection rate of more than 100% — meaning more residents have contracted it than there are current residents, due to deaths, transfers and discharges — only two have completed the training.

Medicare partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to address common concerns found during inspections at facilities across the U.S. with a high rate of COVID-19 infection, including: hand hygiene and proper PPE use, resident surveillance and isolation strategies, cleaning, and specialty care for those with dementia during the pandemic.

These are the nursing homes that have participated in Medicare’s safety training as of Nov. 3:

Nursing homes can find more about the training here. 

The post Most Mississippi nursing homes haven’t completed Medicare’s COVID-19 training appeared first on Mississippi Today.

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Wednesday, November 18:

New cases: 1,593| New Deaths: 20

Total Hospitalizations: 868

Total cases: 137,396| Total Deaths: 3,601

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. On Nov. 16, Reeves added seven counties to the state’s mask-wearing mandate. The 22 counties under a mandate until Dec. 11 are: Benton, Carroll, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Harrison, Hinds, Humphreys, Itawamba, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lee, Madison, Marshall, Montgomery, Pontotoc, Rankin, Tate, Winston, and Yalobusha. State health officials still encourage widespread masking and credit the mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, November 18

The seven-day new case average reached 1,143 today, a 54% increase since the start of November and the highest mark since Aug. 3. 

The health department has reported over 8,000 new cases in the last week; apart from the record surge in July and August — which saw a 13-day stretch with over 8,000 new weekly cases — this is the only other time Mississippi has reached that threshold. 

The number of hospitalizations have also begun to surge in the last month; using the seven-day rolling averages, total hospitalizations have increased by 32% in that time, ICU patients by 34%, and patients on ventilators by 36%. 

Overall, the state’s ICUs are 84% full, with COVID-19 patients comprising 26% of all ICU beds. Sixteen of the state’s highest level COVID-care centers are at 86% capacity, and five of them — both Baptist Memorial Hospitals in Southaven and in the Golden Triangle, University of Mississippi Medical Center and St. Dominic in Jackson, and the Delta Regional Medical Center in Greenville — have zero ICU beds available. 

According to the latest White House task force report, Mississippi’s test positivity rate is now 14%. 

Within the last two weeks, Mississippi has moved from “orange” to “red” on the Global Health Institute’s risk level tracker, meaning it now averages over 25 daily new cases per 100,000 residents. Despite the rise in cases in the state, Mississippi now ranks 31st in new cases per capita, dropping from 26th a week ago.

Counties across the state saw large increases in cases over the last week. Choctaw County (15% increase), Stone County (12%), Lincoln County (12%), Attala County (12%) and Marshall County (12%) saw the biggest surges in that span. 

MSDH reports that 116,683 people have recovered. 

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,593 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Educating the Legislature appeared first on Mississippi Today.

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Tuesday, November 17:

New cases: 905| New Deaths: 36

Total Hospitalizations: 807

Total cases: 135,803| Total Deaths: 3,581

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. On Nov. 11, Reeves extended the mask mandate for the counties of: Benton, Carroll, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Harrison, Humphreys, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lee, Marshall, Rankin, and Yalobusha. State health officials still encourage widespread masking and credit the mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Tuesday, November 10

COVID-19 cases continue to surge across the U.S. — particularly overwhelming rural areas. In Mississippi this week, the average number of daily cases surpassed 900 for the first time in three months and has continued to climb. 

Tuesday’s jump of 933 cases brings the rolling average to 947 daily cases – only 20 days of the entire pandemic have reached this threshold. The jump also resulted in a 42% increase in average new cases over the last week — the 26th largest increase since the pandemic began, comprising the only jump that large not in the March/April or June/July case surges. 

The recent case surge also totaled more than 6,600 weekly cases for the state, or about 223 per 100,000 residents — the most since early August when peak summer cases were just beginning to decline. 

While counties in North Mississippi and on the Coast continue to see the most regional case growth, more central counties are starting to see spikes again, with Jefferson Davis (11% increase in the last week), Carroll and Stone County (both 10%) experiencing the sharpest rises. In central Carroll County, 19% of COVID-19 tests came back positive the last week of October, according to the state health department, while the Coast’s Jackson County saw more than a quarter of all tests come back positive.

Hospitalizations have sharply risen over the last month. Compared to a month ago, the seven-day average for hospitalizations is up 22%. Overall the state’s ICU beds are 87% full, compared to a baseline of 66% in 2018. The state’s 16 highest level COVID-19 hospitals’ ICUs are 92% full, housing 33% more patients with the coronavirus than three weeks ago.

According to Harvard’s Global Health Institute tracker, Mississippi ranks 26th in new cases per capita. The tracker puts Mississippi and neighboring states Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas all in the “red” risk level, indicating 25 or more new cases per 100,000 people. Louisiana, Florida and Georgia are in the “orange” risk level, the tier just below. 

As far as deaths, Mississippi now ranks sixth in most total deaths per capita after long hovering at seventh, and ranks 17th in recent deaths per capita, according to the New York Times’ tracker.  

MSDH estimates 111,430 people have recovered.

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 905 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

When the Greenville Public School District opted in August for an all-virtual start because the coronavirus pandemic was ravaging Washington County, Superintendent Debra Dace wrote in the district’s return to school plan that the district “will always strive to make decisions that are in the best interest of students, staff and other stakeholders…”

But after multiple instances of being left in the dark about which students contracted the virus and a recent teacher’s death, at least one educator in the district told Mississippi Today her colleagues’ best interests are not being considered as promised.

The teacher in the district told Mississippi Today she learned someone in her building contracted the virus in late summer before classes began. It was announced on Facebook, but not directly communicated to the teachers in that building.

“Someone told me (that the district announced) it on Facebook, but I just don’t go on Facebook a lot,” the teacher told Mississippi Today. “So I did not know about it until someone shared it with me.”

Then on Nov. 3, a teacher in the Greenville School District died. A Facebook post from a family member said he died of COVID-19, but Mississippi Today was not able to confirm the cause of his death. Again, the district did not notify staff directly about this  but announced it on Facebook, the teacher said.

“That’s all I heard of. That’s it,” the Greenville teacher said.

One week later, the Greenville School District  announced it was moving all of its students back to virtual learning.

As the number of COVID-19 cases in Mississippi spike for the third time this year, and many districts continue with traditional or hybrid learning, this is an issue playing out across the state.

While district officials say they are making decisions with student and teacher safety in mind, educators who spoke with Mississippi Today said they feel unsafe because no one is communicating to them when someone in the building contracts the virus, meaning they have no idea if they have been exposed and need to quarantine.

The teachers and parents Mississippi Today spoke with across the state for this article asked for anonymity over fear of retaliation from their local school districts. School administrators for the districts mentioned in this article — the Greenville Public School District, Cleveland Public School District and the Simpson County School District — refuted the allegations and said they were following proper channels of communication.

In the Cleveland School District, one parent said they were told this summer by the band director that their child would lose their spot if they did not attend band camp.

The child wound up contracting COVID-19, as did both of the student’s parents. One of the parents decided to let the band director know so she could communicate with other parents and help them be proactive about quarantining their children.

“I told her that my child was worried about losing their spot. She told me do not worry about it because they have had a few students who have been quarantined in the last couple weeks. I thought to myself, ‘Why haven’t the parents of this school district been alerted to this?’” the parent wrote in an email to Mississippi Today.

Later on in the school year, a different source close to the Cleveland School District said that administrators were not making teachers aware when they had been exposed. Instead, leaders were only sending lists to teachers of students who had to quarantine.

In the Simpson County School District, a teacher says that administrators are not telling teachers at all when they’ve been exposed to students who have contracted the coronavirus.

“Some of my students are currently out with COVID, and (school administrators) have not told anybody except for a very small handful of students that they may have been exposed,” the teacher told Mississippi Today. “We have older teachers who they haven’t been told, ‘Hey, you’ve been exposed to COVID.’ So really they’re just not telling any of the teachers.”

This teacher also reached out to the Mississippi State Department of Health to report what was happening, but was told it was up to the schools to decide who to tell when someone contracts the virus. This is in direct opposition to the guidelines set out by MSDH, which says districts must notify the group or school that a case of COVID-19 has been identified.

The Mississippi Department of Education has stated that all school districts are required to follow the  directives set out by MSDH, which say that anyone who comes into close contact with another person infected with the coronavirus should get tested and quarantine for 14 days, even if the test is negative.

If a teacher or staff member is deemed “essential” by the district but has been exposed to the virus, the teacher can keep working if they show no symptoms and have their symptoms and temperature monitored daily by the school, according to MSDH policy.

The health department policy also explicitly states that it is the district’s responsibility to notify the group or school that a case of COVID-19 was identified there.

“If that’s the policy, then the people who are answering phones at the health department don’t know it,” said the teacher in Simpson County.

In the Clarksdale Municipal School District, teachers said they hear “gossip” from co-workers, parents and students about the number of potential cases in their districts, but not from principals.

“There’s so much risk and no conversation about the risk at all. It’s scary,” a Clarksdale teacher said. “I feel pretty lucky I don’t have children I don’t bring this home to. I know that’s a position a lot of the teachers are in.”

Additionally, the Clarksdale teachers said they feel the district does not care about the safety and wellbeing of teachers and staff. The Clarksdale district has not provided personal protective equipment (PPE) since the start of school, they said. As a way to ensure their classroom is sanitized, they bought supplies using their own money or parents gave them wipes and sanitizers.

“It makes me feel really uneasy, and our administration (says) we are a team, yet that teamwork only extends to state testing priorities and not to teacher health or teacher wellbeing,” another Clarksdale teacher said.

Earl Joe Nelson, Jr., superintendent of the Clarksdale school district, said the district is “far from out” of PPE and makes weekly deliveries to the schools. He urged teachers to first contact their principals for concerns and guidelines from the CDC and MSDH. However, if they are dissatisfied, they can personally reach out to him, he said.

“Our goal isn’t to keep them in the dark … We have people overly concerned, and we also have people that don’t wanna (come to) work,” he said in a phone call with Mississippi Today. “If they need anything addressed, I would take full responsibility for this … and address the school right away.”

As a result of continued spread of the virus in schools, Nelson said two schools have closed in the district: Clarksdale High and George H. Oliver Elementary. Both were offering a hybrid model of learning but are now entirely virtual.

Having open lines of communication between school administration and teachers can alleviate the anxiety and fear they have, said Erica Jones, president of the Mississippi Association of Educators.

“We’ve said this over and over again, this is a matter of life or death,” Jones said. “Our educators are going into these buildings day in and day out. Let’s stop being so secretive of things … our educators should be afforded with information about district personnel as it comes to COVID.”

While many teachers are upset by the way their districts handle communication about the virus, some feel their school could be a model for how to do this properly.

In Prentiss County School District, for example, school staff are made aware when someone on campus has contracted COVID-19 and are told they will be contacted personally if they have been exposed to the virus.

“I absolutely agree and appreciate the way they are handing it. You want to know that it’s happening on your campus or around you,” said Alison Rausch, a teacher in Prentiss County School District.

Similarly, the Clinton Public School District regularly sends out press releases whenever someone in the district contracts the virus.

As of Nov. 10, data provided by MSDH shows a total of at least 7,127 teachers, students and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of school.

This data is variable because it’s self-reported, and the number of schools that report varies from week to week. Many teachers also allege those statistics are inaccurate because school administrators aren’t truthfully reporting how many people in the school district actually became infected with the virus.

Teachers in those districts where school leaders aren’t communicating with them about campus infections say they feel like administrators don’t care at all about their wellbeing.

“It’s scary because I feel like we’re sitting ducks,” said the Greenville Public School teacher. “We’re just sitting here waiting to get this virus.”

The post Teachers, parents share concerns about how districts communicate COVID-19 cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Governor Tate Reeves throws a little political red meat out with his budget proposal. Will it be enough to win back his voters who are mad at him for signing the legislation to change the flag or proposing mask mandates?

The post Marshall Ramsey: Flag Jail appeared first on Mississippi Today.