MOULTRIE, Ga. — As the Colquitt County School System entered its second week, it released its first report on COVID-19 cases in the district.

This update relies on data from the previous week and is current as of Aug. 21. It provides a breakdown of those quarantined and those with confirmed cases within the district-wide population.

Within the county’s student population of 9,003, the school system reported 14 confirmed cases and 237 quarantined students. The county’s staff population of 1,379 saw one confirmed case and 23 quarantined.

The breakdown doesn’t go any further than that, School Superintendent Doug Howell said.

“This is what most systems around us are doing,” he said “There are a lot of privacy issues with names, data and stuff.”

Howell emphasized that the vast majority of people under quarantine aren’t sick, rather they were exposed to a confirmed case and are taking precautions to keep others safe.

The updates will come out weekly, tabulating data from the previous week (Monday-Friday); however, he said don’t be surprised if you’re seeing a consistent number there.

“It’ll be current data, but sometimes people might show up on consecutive weeks because obviously 14 days rolls over into a second week,” he said.

The students’ learning process under quarantine will be handled as if they were out of school for any other reason, Howell said.

“There’s a possibility that they could be online, there’s also the possibility they could be taught using hard copies, packets and workbooks, etc.,” he said. “But those things will be handled on a case by case, school by school, and teacher by teacher situation. We don’t know in advance who might be quarantined.”

Though they will continue to take to the side of health.

Taking the first week as almost a test run, Howell said they were satisfied with the look and rollout of the first update. If there’s anything that needs changing over time, they’ll adjust accordingly. 

He said the school system was also satisfied with its first week but noted that adjustments were made. Case in point, parents had the first week to finalize their child’s placement in traditional or remote/virtual schooling.

The final population breakdown between the two options landed somewhere around 75-78 percent for in-person classes and 22-25 for online.

“It’s different in every school. Some schools have more than that and some schools had less,” Howell said. “Of course, that was changing a little bit every day last week.”

The school system will continue to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines regardless of its school population. This includes cleaning equipment daily (depending on which equipment, multiple times daily), abiding by social distancing, encouraging the wearing of masks and providing sanitizer where they can.

This is something Howell trusts the principals and site leaders to keep track of and perform.

“When it comes to individual schools, we have 13 schools and several sites beyond that, including our office site up here,” he said. “Each of those principals or site leaders are responsible for their own buildings so to speak.”