BAINBRIDGE, Ga. (WTXL) — After just ten days of being back in the classroom, Decatur County students and staff are now back at home, teaching and learning digitally for at least the next two weeks.
Decatur County School's swift return to digital learning comes as dozens of critical staff members face quarantine. It's a decision affecting parents too.
"We were just in distance learning for two weeks and it was also still being developed," said parent Melissa Traver.
Traver's family is one hundreds learning how to adapt to the changes forced by the Delta variant.
"That was a little rough and rocky for my kids, but I'm anticipating it'll go better this time,"Traver said.
Meanwhile, Superintendent, Tim Cochran says of staff members, "We had roughly 43 out as of Friday," many of them from Bainbridge High School. He adds, "The high school is one of our larger schools so they tend to have a few more."
The Bearcat family still mourns the recent loss of principal Dr. Roy Mathews.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss medical issues from staff," Cochran says, but, "We did lose our principal, and that's been tough for us all."
In addition to staff members, roughly 300 students in the district are quarantined.
Parents like Traver tell ABC 27 one solution they're hoping for in all of this is for "parents to get their kids vaccinated. That helps us all. We're safer if teachers and staff are vaccinated as well."
If all goes according to plan, two weeks is all the district will need before bringing students back into school buildings September 7.
Dr. Cochran says vaccination is the best tool the district has in its arsenal to get students and staff back on track.
