With new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines in mind, most Delaware schools are preparing for an in-person return to school in the new year.

Heath Chasanov, superintendent for Woodbridge School District, said schools will be opening as usual Monday morning. However, he raised concerns over staffing issues if COVID-19 case numbers “keep escalating the way they are.”

“If we have too many people out, we can’t run a school,” he said. “That is our greatest concern. You are seeing that in pro sports. You are seeing that in the medical field. You’re seeing that in so many other areas. That is kind of what we are keeping an eye on.”

Mr. Chasanov said the district will continue to monitor the number of staff that are out due to the virus, as they have for the past two years, as well as stay in contact with district principals and supervisors. Still, he said the district’s goal is to keep students in their physical classrooms.

“If we start to have that kind of situation, we’re going to do everything we can to still stay in school,” he said. “But every industry has a breaking point. I just hope we don’t get there. Our kids need to be in school, and we’re going to do everything to have kids in school as many days as possible.”

Sussex Academy, a charter school, announced via Facebook Friday that its winter break will now extend through Jan. 7 due to the spread of COVID-19 variants.

Then on Jan. 10, in-person instruction will resume with a virtual option for families who choose to do so and for students who are required to quarantine.

The post says more detailed information for the return will be shared early next week. Information on the impact on sports and extracurricular activities will be shared as it becomes available.

As of Dec. 24, there have been 5,457 in-person contagious cases of COVID-19 among K-12 public students this academic year since Sept. 4. That’s 3.8% of the estimated 141,040 students in public schools (all 19 districts and 23 charter schools). There have been an additional 1,165 cases among public school staff.

During a COVID-19 news briefing Thursday, Gov. John Carney said, in his office, there hasn’t been a discussion of allowing school districts to go remote.

“My guess is they discussed it at the district level in different places across our state,” Gov. Carney said.

Noting there is a “pretty pervasive” spread of COVID-19 in the state, Gov. Carney said the spread is higher in areas with lower vaccination rates. He listed central Delaware and lower Delaware as areas with high levels of spread. Gov. Carney said the spread also is more concentrated among young adults.

“A lot of those young adults have young children obviously so we’re very concerned about the need to get those populations vaccinated when many of them haven’t received one dose,” he said. “That’s where we think our focus ought to be.”

Noting the negative effects of remote learning, Gov. Carney said one of the state’s most important objectives is to keep children in schools for in-person instruction.

“We know how bad the negative effects have been,” Gov. Carney said. “They were out for months at a time. We also know how safe and structured the environments are in schools.”

He said the mask mandate helps make schools safer than “just about any other place.”

“Are we concerned with the surge and whether it can penetrate into those environments? Absolutely,” he said. “Are we concerned about the fact that children have been out of that structured environment for an extended period of time? Absolutely. That’s why the message is to be careful so you’re not spreading it from social environments of parents and young adult siblings to the children.”

Gov. Carney said the effects of children being out of their physical classrooms can ricochet to other areas of normal life.

“When children aren’t in school, parents can’t go to work. We heard that loudly and clearly at the beginning of the pandemic with our childcare facilities, our schools and our hospitals,” Gov. Carney said. “They can’t keep their workers there unless their children have places to go.”

In a message posted to Facebook on Wednesday and signed by Superintendent Kevin Fitzgerald, Caesar Rodney School District has chosen to adopt the new CDC guidance around shorter isolation and quarantine times for those infected with COVID-19.

This means that students who test positive for COVID-19, but are asymptomatic, may reduce their isolation period from 10 days to five days as long as they wear a mask around others (in and out of their home) for at least five additional days.

If you develop a fever, remain in isolation until the fever resolves.
For students who are unvaccinated — or more than six months out from their second dose of Pfizer or Moderna, or two months out from their single dose of Johnson & Johnson (without a booster) — the quarantine time has been reduced from 10 days to five days, followed by mask use for an additional five days.

For close contacts to students who have received their booster shot — or are less than six months out from being fully vaccinated with Pfizer or Moderna, or are less than two months from their Johnson & Johnson vaccines — no quarantine is needed. These persons should wear a mask for 10 days after being exposed to COVID-19.

For vaccinated close contacts who are not eligible for a booster, including students younger than 16 years of age, no quarantine is needed.

The Delaware Division of Public Health is reviewing the guidance and evaluating its impact on the Test-to-Stay program, Dr. Fitzgerald wrote.

Dr. Kevin Carson, Sussex Tech superintendent, said Wednesday that there are no changes to report as far as reopening schools in the new year.

“We plan on opening up on Monday,” he said. “We are aware of the COVID numbers that everyone has been seeing. We continue to have communication with the DPH. We continue to seek their guidance and counsel going forward.”

Dr. Carson added that Delaware superintendents are “staying in touch with each other” about the virus numbers and the return to school. As with Woodbridge School District, he said the challenge might be staffing in the new year.

“To my knowledge, everyone in Sussex County is opening on Monday,” he said. “The challenge that folks have is making sure that you can staff your buildings. Everybody is trying to do their best, but it’s a highly fluid, dynamic situation.”

David Maull, spokesman for Indian River School District, confirmed via email that students will receive in-person instruction when schools resume Monday.

Jason Camerson, spokesman for Seaford School District, said the same, as did Dr. Shawn Larrimore, superintendent of Laurel School District.

“Our plan is to continue in-person learning beginning on Jan. 3,” Dr. Larrimore wrote in an email.

Mr. Chasanov said that, with the COVID-19 mitigation efforts being practiced, schools are safe places for students — “as safe as any place,” he said.

“Kids are wearing masks. We’re following protocols, and that’s not happening everywhere in their lives,” he said. “We are certainly seeing positive cases. We saw an increase up to the break. Cases were rising just like they are across society. We still haven’t seen a ton of what we felt like were cases that were spread within schools. I am not saying it doesn’t happen. It does happen, but most of the cases we are seeing are coming from home, outside of school.”