BROWNSBURG — How big a problem is COVID-19 in Indiana schools? We get an idea from looking at numbers from one large suburban district.
Brownsburg Community Schools is 17 days into the fall semester. Superintendent Jim Snapp shared a report with families Friday.
Here are some of the key findings:
- On day one of school, 8,238 (88%) of students returned in person while 1,143 (12%) of students started school online. The current online numbers are 1,257 (13.4%).
- Currently we have 9,447 students in preschool through 12th grade, with 584 teachers who are part of an overall staff of 1,137. Brownsburg High School is the 13th largest high school in Indiana with an enrollment of 2,743. Understanding these numbers puts the impact of COVID in a proper perspective.
- BCSC was notified its first positive student on Tuesday, August 4. Since that time, we’ve had 10 additional students who have tested positive for COVID or been clinically diagnosed with COVID by a doctor. Those cases occurred at Brownsburg High School.
- On Friday, August 14, we had our first staff case that impacted students. At ALPHA, a small program for students with special needs, five BCSC students had to be quarantined after contact with two ALPHA staff members who were COVID positive. As of today, seven staff members have tested positive for COVID.
- At this time, 174 of students have been or are currently quarantined since they were within six feet of someone who was COVID positive. The number of students quarantined in each case ranged from a high of 31 students quarantined to a low of five.
- All of the quarantined students who were eligible to return to school have returned to school on time. None of the quarantined students (67 students) who have already returned to school have displayed or reported developing any symptoms of COVID.
- The COVID positive students have returned to school on schedule, with none being hospitalized. The seriousness of the symptoms while the students were absent from school varied from student to student.
- Through our contact tracing, there is no evidence to indicate that any of these students caught COVID through contact at school.
- We have been asked about the number at which the schools would close or move to a hybrid instructional model. At this time only a decision by the Governor, the Hendricks County Health Department or the BCSC Board of School Trustees would close our schools. The major concern with a hybrid model is the number of days of online learning compared to being in school.
- Since none of the quarantined students to date have reported any symptoms, we are re-examining our classroom layouts to create more social distance, which should dramatically reduce the number of students quarantined when there is another positive COVID case.
