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Clay schools confirm 15 additional students with COVID-19 virus

By Wesley LeBlanc wesley@opcfla.com
Posted 9/23/20

FLEMING ISLAND – A total of 15 students have tested positive with the COVID-19 virus in the past week.

The Clay County School Board held its usual school board workshop on Sept. 22, and while …

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Clay schools confirm 15 additional students with COVID-19 virus


Posted

FLEMING ISLAND – A total of 15 students have tested positive with the COVID-19 virus in the past week.

The Clay County School Board held its usual school board workshop on Sept. 22, and while the agenda was one of the smallest of the year, there was plenty of COVID-19 talk to go around – particularly the number of students that contracted the virus last week, and how numbers will be released on a week-by-week basis.

“A total of .00038% of our students in the past week had it,” Superintendent David Broskie said. “That’s a total of 15 students. Everyone was concerned there’d be an increase in the number of people. Why wouldn’t they? That’s absolutely logical but the question is how do you manage that? I’m proud to say that...we’ve managed it. [COVID-19] has not affected the operation of our schools.”

There currently are more than 39,000 students in the district.

Broskie said he’s been to about half of the district’s schools and plans to make it to the rest soon. He’s impressed with what he’s seen so far both in COVID-19 safety and the creative ways teachers are using the current predicament to teach. Broskie said schools are planning to keep things originally rolled into schools for COVID-19 safety for the long-term.

The signage, operation of the cafeteria and the general spacing of students has made this year’s opening of schools one of the “smoothest opening of schools from a brick and mortar standpoint.

“As the Superintendent, I want to say that I am extremely proud,” he said.

Broskie is especially impressed with the different methods teachers are using to teach virtually. He’s taught in a brick and mortar classroom before – long before he was working at the district level – and he said teaching face to face is the way to go for him. He is very impressed and humbled by the quality of teaching happening virtually despite his own lack of personal experience teaching through that method.

Two weeks ago, there were six students with COVID-19 so the number has more than doubled as its reached 15 this past week. But Broskie said it’s important to point out how little of a percentage that is of the total student base. Only eight staff members have contracted the virus so far. These numbers are reported here in the county and at the state level but Broskie said communication has remained the biggest challenge.

“In the world of social media, everybody knows somebody who knows somebody,” Broskie said. “‘Hey, I heard this happened at this particular school,’ and that information starts to spread. The numbers [can get lost in translation] so I would encourage people to not buy into that...and check our report...or the state reports instead.”