All Fannin County schools closed Monday, March 16 and will remain closed through the end of the month, following an announcement from Superintendent Dr. Michael Gwatney.
This followed Governor Brian Kemp’s call for school systems to consider closing as a preventative measure to decrease the spread of COVID-19 throughout the state. He later mandated that all schools close through March 31.
“We want to do our part to protect this community,” Gwatney said during a Board of Education meeting Thursday, March 12.
School system officials also consulted with Dr. Dillon Miller who provided the board with an update on COVID-19. He compared the current threat to a fire alarm and agreed that now is the time to react to prevent those in the population who are most at risk from contracting the virus.
“There’s a fire alarm going off,” Miller said. “We hear that fire alarm, and we don’t know if there’s a fire in here. It could be that there’s something in this building that we’re hearing, but we don’t know where in the building it is. We don’t have enough tests to be able to tell what areas of the country are most impacted, what clusters within the state are most impacted, whether or not we actually have people in our own community that have it that we just haven’t been able to test yet. We don’t have that information right now. All we know is we’re hearing a fire alarm.
“I think as an organization, as a community, as a school system, we have to decide at what point do we need to make a decision when it comes to that fire alarm in the best interest of our folks so that we don’t get burned, and I think that’s where we’re at.”
Miller explained that the outbreak in the United States has mirrored the outbreak in Italy, stating, “Our day eight is almost eerily similar to their day eight. They waited another five to six days before they closed their schools past kind of where we are right now.”
He believes that by closing the schools earlier, the country may be able to “flatten the curve.”
“Early intervention for school closures is where you get the most bang for your buck, the most success,” he said. “After you wait until a certain point, once the spread of disease has already gone to a certain point, we find that, that school closure has less impact on the community.”
He further explained that the spread of COVID-19 differs from the spread of the Flu in that it can spread to twice as many people from the host.
While the virus has not impacted the student aged population as it has the elderly population, Miller hopes that by decreasing the spread to the system’s staff and students, the older population will be less affected.
“The use of data is powerful,” Gwatney said. “We want to do our part to flatten that curve.”
The system intends to use the recently implemented COLD Day model to allow students to complete school work from home at this time.
Meals for Fannin students who need them will be delivered by school bus drivers and available for pick-up while the schools are closed.
Fannin County School System Director of Achievement Sarah Rigdon said that each school bus driver has called their riders to see if meals are needed during the closure. A Google Form is also available on the system’s Facebeook page for families to indicate their need, by pre-ordering meals and designating a pick-up point if possible.
Meals will be disbursed at various pick-up points across the county. Students must be present to pick up the meal. All food will be served cold and in individual servings to keep it safe from spoiling.
“I am thankful for our community, especially our people - both children and adults,” he said. “Along this line, we are faced with an issue that requires our community to work together. This is a fluid and rapidly evolving situation, and more changes will likely be needed as our routines change. More information will be shared as soon as possible.”
He encouraged parents to contact their child’s school or his office at 706-632-3771.