Published Monday, Aug. 16, 2021 | 8:30 p.m.
Updated Monday, Aug. 16, 2021 | 8:56 p.m.
Frank Lamping Elementary School in Henderson is dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak and on Tuesday will revert back to online learning for at least 10 days.
In a note announcing the move to families, Principal Robert Solomon didn’t indicate if the outbreak is with students or staff — or both. He also didn’t say how many in the school community have the virus or have been in close contact with someone who has had the virus.
Solomon added that “students who are asymptomatic can return to face-to-face instruction on Aug. 30.”
About 300,000 Clark County School District students started the school year Aug. 9, returning to full-time in-person learning after most of the 2020-21 academic year was conducted digitally. Some students were brought back in the final weeks of the previous school year in a hybrid model, where they were on campus two days a week.
The new school year, with the coronavirus vaccine readily available, was designed to be hosted on campus. But only 965,581 (42.6%) of Clark County residents are fully vaccinated, which has led to the virus surging over the past month with emergence of the delta variance.
The surge has reached the classroom.
There have been 452 self-reported cases among students and staff since July 1 in the School District, including 181 children, according to CCSD data. A total of 73 elementary school students — those not yet eligible for the vaccine — have tested positive.
Solomon wrote to parents that officials consulted with the Southern Nevada Health District before making the return to online education.
“Adding COVID-19 and the delta variant has added extra stress to the system,” Superintendent Jesus Jara said last week at a school board meeting. “However, we have always been focused on the best decisions for the safety and the wellness of our students and our staff, following the guidance of our medical experts.”
Those safety protocols include: Mandatory face masks, following social distancing standards, and frequent school disinfecting.
With children returning to the classroom this month, the problem of managing the surging virus isn’t limited to Southern Nevada.
A Tampa, Florida, school district on Monday said 5,599 students and 316 staffers are either in isolation or quarantine because of a positive test or potential exposure to someone who is positive.
Officials with Hillsborough County Public Schools, which has 200,000 students in 200 schools, will have an emergency meeting Wednesday to discuss safety measures — including requiring masks. Florida parents can opt out of their child wearing face masks at schools under an executive order from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In Texas, three rural Texas school districts are closed for at least a week because of outbreaks.
