DOTHAN, Ala. – Before students departed for Christmas, Dothan City Schools asked parents to report any quarantines or positive Covid-19 tests over the break in a reporting form.
“The quicker we can get word out, the quicker we can identify any potential shortage or any potential outbreak. I think that’s the ultimate goal is to notify parents as well as health department officials as quickly as we can in anything that we might identify as say a outbreak we may have,” Dennis Coe, Dothan City Schools acting superintendent, Dennis Coe said.
The form provides the school system with information regarding when a student or staff member was diagnosed or started to experience symptoms of the virus.
“We have about 90 students that would be quarantined under normal circumstances. Our staff numbers are up, right now we anticipate as of tomorrow well have 57 staff members that are either out as a result of a positive diagnosis or a result of quarantine, so that’s significantly larger than it was before the holidays,” Coe said.
Ten of those staff members coming from Kelly Springs Elementary. Forcing DCS to close the campus and students to switch to remote instruction.
“We do have staffing shortage there as a result of multiple things, some of Covid, identification of Covid, some of it’s quarantine, some of it’s just regular sickness. As a result of the shortage that we have and the number of substitutes that are available, we simply don’t have enough staff to safely run school,” Coe said.
Along with Kelly Springs, Dothan Prep will also be closed through the week due to a shortage of staff. Both schools will return to in person learning next Monday, January 11th.
