Ouachita, Monroe schools have remained open, nearby districts closed for COVID: Here's why

Despite school closures due to the rise of COVID cases attributed to the omicron variant, Ouachita Parish Schools and Monroe City Schools stay open.

Though neither school district requires masks in the classroom, both have managed to maintain school operations and teach students in person. Meanwhile, other districts across Northeast Louisiana have temporarily shut their doors because not enough teachers and/or students are healthy enough to warrant face-to-face instruction. Just weeks after the start of the semester, Lincoln, Union and East Carroll parishes announced COVID-19-related school closures this week.

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Brent Vidrine, superintendent of Monroe City Schools, credits the precautions taken to decrease case counts and following COVID protocols.

"We just maintain all our procedures that we've done for the past two years with our staff, custodians, cafeteria works, buses," Vidrine said. "We maintain our procedures for maintaining healthy standards in our classrooms and our buildings."

Vidrine said case counts for the district hit a high last week and have continued to decrease throughout the past week. During this time frame, student attendance fluctuated between 86% to 88%. There are still no plans for the district to move to virtual learning.

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The district also experienced absent teachers. On Jan. 7, Vidrine said 96 certified teachers were out, which led to a scramble for substitute teachers. Thursday, only 42 teachers were absent, bringing the number back to normal levels. There are about 750 total certified teachers in the district.

"That's a normal day, 42, because people don't realize when we say 42 teachers out there could be 10 to 15 out for pregnancy or illness and stuff like that," Vidrine said. "A normal day is 35 to 40 teachers out, so only having 42 (Thursday) was really assuring." 

Ouachita Parish Schools has seen about 10% of teachers and students each being absent during the omicron surge, and numbers continued to rise over the past week, according to superintendent Don Coker. 

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Monday, there were 115 teachers and 1,800 students quarantining for either COVID-positive cases or exposure to them. By the end of the week, the number of teachers out had risen to 178; Thursday, 2,150 students were absent for COVID-related issues. There are about 18,000 students in the district, making it the largest in the region.

"It's challenging," Coker said. "As we came back from our Christmas break, we looked to do everything we could to try to keep our schools open, and so each day we have been monitoring the number of teachers out and support employees out."

To keep in-person operations going, Coker said staff members have been filling in different roles. Staff members from the central office have stepped in as substitute teachers. Coaches have buckled up as bus drivers. 

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Coker said the goal is to keep in-person instruction as long as it is safe and sustainable.

"Our principals have done an absolutely outstanding job of trying to fill classes that were not filled by subs," Coker said. "Today, I think we have about four of our central office people that are actually filling in where the schools needed some help. We have pledged to do everything we can to keep our kids safe yet also in school, if at all possible."

Though the school closures in the region are taking place in more rural areas, some smaller school districts are defying the trend and remaining open with low COVID case counts. In Madison Parish, superintendent Charlie Butler said his district has fared well during the surge because the parish has always remained proactively prepared against the pandemic.

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Madison Parish Schools has kept masks mandatory since day one, according to Butler. The district also spends a lot of money on masks for students and staff, he said.

"We've just been blessed that we haven't had any further breakouts," Butler said. "Other than our attendance rate for students being fairly low at this time, we have a high percentage of staff still coming to work."

Butler said there have been no shortages of bus drivers or custodial workers due to COVID. When teachers are absent, there are paraprofessional teachers in each classroom ready to take over in addition to substitute teachers. 

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Additionally, Butler said the school district has its own health unit that goes around to the different schools to enforce health protocols. The district was able to hire more custodians with federal COVID-relief funding. There's even a school-based health center for individuals who test positive to go and undergo contact tracing.

Follow Sabrina LeBoeuf on Twitter @_sabrinakaye and on Facebook at https://bit.ly/3B8sgHo.

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