Jeff Luttrell’s voice cracked at times as he laid bare the dire situation he is facing as director of Wilson County Schools three weeks into the academic year: 209 teachers absent, 38 bus routes down for the day, 562 active COVID cases among students and staff. Secretaries supervising classes. And 60- to 80-hour work weeks for teachers and staff who have added temperature checks, disinfecting, learning plans for sick kids and contact tracing to their primary jobs of educating children.
Then he ticked off the tools the district relied on last year to navigate the pandemic that are no longer available to him now: Remote learning, hybrid models that allowed kids to alternate school days to ensure social distancing, mask requirements and strict protocols that allowed schools to require kids exposed to COVID to learn remotely until they cleared a quarantine period.
“Folks, I’m pleading with this community,” Luttrell said, addressing a restless group of parents, many motivated to attend the emergency school board meeting Tuesday by their adamantly pro- or anti-mask stances. “Your education system is stretched thin, folks. I don’t care what side you are on. Our people are stretched. They’re stressed. And they’re trying to educate our students. I’m telling you there’s going to come a day regardless of what we’re doing that I’m going to have to shut schools down.”
Luttrell is not the only school administrator feeling the squeeze between parent demands and state-imposed restrictions as COVID-19 cases multiply across Tennessee – infecting a record number of children – in a surge that coincided with the opening of the 2021 school year. Hamilton County schools on Friday decided to switch to virtual-only education for five schools this week, as cases surge especially in schools where more families have opted out of the district’s mask requirement for students.
Compounding school officials’ frustration are conflicting communications from state health officials that have changed, in some instances, from one day to the next.