Logan schools delay start of classes

The scheduled start of classes Monday at Logan Municipal Schools officially was delayed Sunday night after a staff member tested positive last week for COVID-19, two other staff members showed symptoms of the disease, and many others were exposed.

The school board during a special meeting Sunday night via the Zoom videoconference platform voted unanimously to delay the start of school to Sept. 8.

Adding two Fridays each month to the fall semester would make up most of the lost instructional days. Another week would be added to the spring semester, though the school year still would finish before Memorial Day. Nearly two-thirds of Logan’s teachers favored that of three options in an online survey given by superintendent Dennis Roch earlier Sunday.

Roch said during the meeting a staff member last week showed symptoms of coronavirus while on school grounds and later tested positive for the disease.

“Somebody became infected symptomatically that had touched nearly everyone on campus,” he said. “It became a perfect storm.”

Logan Municipal Schools on Thursday announced by social media and text the likely delay of the start of school. The social media post stated one staff member tested positive for COVID-19 and two others showed symptoms.

Roch said “a number” of the school’s staff members have been tested for the virus but wasn’t certain how many. He urged staff members quarantine themselves for 14 days and undergo testing if they show symptoms of COVID-19. State protocol also requires disinfecting of school buildings.

“The one thing I’m grateful for was it happened before students were on campus,” Roch said. “Our hope is by delaying, we can start with a blank slate and get beyond what looks like a little outbreak in Logan, America. It’s not just limited to the school. Several other entities in Logan are affected, as well.”

“It was one of those shoes that was going to drop at some point,” school board member Tom Humble said. “But the timing kind of stinks.”

Ute Lake State Park in Logan also is closed through Aug. 25 after several employees showed symptoms of the disease last week and later tested positive for the virus. Those workers remain under a 14-day quarantine.

According to the New Mexico Department of Health, the Logan ZIP code had seen 15 confirmed cases of coronavirus in five days through Sunday.

The district had planned to hold in-person classes Monday for prekindergarten to second-grade students, with the rest of the student body taking online classes until at least after Labor Day.

Roch said the district couldn’t have held online classes only this week because the distribution of computer devices to students hadn’t occurred before the outbreak. Handing out those devices has been tentatively delayed to Sept. 3.

He said the state’s Department of Health praised the district’s actions last week after the coronavirus case and exposures became apparent. The agency referred the state’s rapid-response team to the district.

“We got compliments from the DOH, but I’d just as soon we not be in position to have a compliment,” he said.

Other options for the restart of school included shifting lost instructional time to the spring, with school ending June 10. The other option added Friday classes entirely during the fall semester, with the school year’s end and graduation at the usual times.

Adding instruction time to the fall and spring semesters, with the school year ending only a week later than normal, found favor with 65% of the teachers in an online survey taken Sunday, Roch said.

School board members also favored that option, largely deferring to the teachers’ judgment.

Middle-school and high-school classes statewide are tentatively scheduled to begin in-person classes in late September and early October respectively, depending on how well the virus is contained in the weeks before. Students in the state also can take online classes for the entire school year if they wish.