Hamilton County High Schools Move To Hybrid Schedule After Thanksgiving

Hamilton County, TN – Due to the high number of COVID-19 cases, Hamilton County School Officials have made the decision to move High Schools to a Hybrid schedule after the Thanksgiving break.

Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson said “The health and safety of our students is our top priority. With only a few weeks in the semester, we do continue to see an increased spread of COVID-19 across this community.”

“Of particular concern are high schools, which represent forty-one percent of our student cases and contact tracing remains a challenge because of the complexity of high school schedules,” Johnson said.

Johnson stated that the District will now manage their own contact tracing.

He reports that the recent rise in COVID-19 cases has put the District in the transition area between Phase 3 and Phase 2 based on the criteria set by the School Reopening Task Force.

Johnson said, “We will plan for all K through 8 students to remain on campus five days a week through December 4th.”

“Students in Grades 9 through 12 will transition to a A/B Hybrid Learning Schedule beginning Monday, November 30th and remain through December 17th.”

Johnson stated the K through 8 situation will be reevaluated after Thanksgiving break.

He said the shift in schedules will help them to better monitor and mitigate cases in High Schools and “allow our youngest learners to remain on campus with the support that they need.”

Johnson reported that the shift will also help the school system effectively utilize support staff and target resources for grades K through 8.

The district has been tracking employee COVID-19 data since March 16, 2020.

Student data tracking began on Aug. 12, 2020.

The current chart displayed on Hamilton County School’s COVID-19 Dashboard shows an active case number for today as 1,931.

This number actually is well into the range of Phase 2 which is between 1,840 and 2,570 active cases. Phase 3 ranges from 1,470 cases down to 370.