Waco students return to classes amid another COVID-19 wave
Indian Spring Middle School student Naomi Aeriel Williams braces for a COVID-19 test swab during a testing clinic Monday at Waco ISD Stadium. Classes resume Tuesday at WISD and most area school districts.
A medical technician swabs the nose of Indian Spring Middle School student Bronshay Williams Jr. at a free Waco ISD testing clinic Monday at WISD Stadium.
Public school administrators are keeping their fingers crossed with the start of classes Tuesday amid another community surge of COVID-19 cases — a scenario eerily similar to last August when districts fully resumed in-person classes just as the delta variant arrived.
While most McLennan County districts closed for their holiday breaks with few, if any, COVID-19 cases reported at their campuses, two weeks’ time and the rapidly spreading omicron variant have led to soaring case rates, although hospitalization rates haven’t yet begun to accelerate.
The Waco-McLennan County Public Health District reported 210 new cases after the New Year weekend, boosting the number of active cases in the community to 1,979 with 67 COVID-19 patients presently in area hospitals.
On August 18 last year, near the start of school for many districts, the county had 1,256 active cases with 166 hospitalized patients.
Masks up is the watchword at the Waco Independent School District, where students and staff have been under a masking mandate since early September, one that drew legal action from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The masking order is still in effect, said WISD spokesperson Alice Jauregui. “We’ve been through this before. What we found was that mask use really helps,” she said, noting that COVID-19 cases reported on WISD campuses began to taper off in the weeks after the order.
While staff and student absences due to COVID-19 caused a few campuses to stop classes several times in 2020, no WISD campuses closed for COVID-19 this fall. Fall also saw the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines for school-age students 5 years and older.
The district offered free COVID-19 testing for staff and students Sunday and Monday before classes began with a third day planned from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday at Waco ISD Stadium. WISD campuses also will continue to have rapid testing onsite with COVID-19 vaccination clinics continuing this spring at certain schools.
Lorena ISD has a vaccination clinic planned from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Lorena High School cafeteria.
La Vega and McGregor ISDs are starting spring classes with schools reporting few if any cases in mid-December. In August, both districts had masking directives triggered at individual schools if positive testing rates exceeded a certain percentage.
Midway ISD has no masking mandate, but offers remote learning for sick or quarantined students and a Midway Virtual School for students and parents wanting online instruction for a longer period, said spokesperson Traci Marlin.
Both Waco and Midway ISDs this spring are adjusting guidelines on when students and teachers can come back after COVID-19 after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently moderated its advisory. The new guidelines will allow students and staff out with COVID-19 to return five days after symptoms begin and 24 hours fever-free without the use of fever-reducing medication.
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