While no cases of Coronavirus or COVID-19 are confirmed for Southeast Missouri, Butler County schools are taking precautions against the spread.
Neelyville R-IV
Neelyville R-IV schools dismissed at 1 p.m. Friday to allow custodial staff to do more thorough cleaning.
Superintendent Debra Parish said that the school has purchased disinfectant bombs that are being disseminated in the classrooms and buses this weekend.
Parish also said everyone is encouraged to practice good hygiene — including thorough handwashing, sneezing into a tissue or bend of the elbow, getting plenty of rest, healthy eating, drinking plenty of fluids and staying home when not feeling well, among other things.
“As our world faces this uncertain global health situation with the spreading of the COVID-19, we know there is no higher priority for Neelyville R-IV then the safety of our students, staff and community,” Parish said. “We want to be diligent about implementing preventative measures.
“The staff has been directed to prioritize cleaning common and high traffic areas multiple times a day. ... Neelyville R-IV will do everything possible to ensure everyone’s safety.”
Parish said that the school district is also developing Alternative Methods of Instruction (AMI) to utilize on days when students cannot be in attendance. AMI is a new initiative promoted by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to maximize the education of all students in times of inclement weather, closings for illness, etc.
Poplar Bluff R-I
Poplar Bluff R-I superintendent Dr. Scott Dill said the district is emphasizing “flattening the incident curve,” which prioritizes precautionary measures that minimize the risks of infection.
“We’re continuing to do the same things that we always do,” Dill said. “We are working with our kids and our teachers to ensure that everyone’s washing their hands the way that they should be, which is standard operating procedure for flu season.
“We are disinfecting everything in sight — every time anybody puts it down, it gets disinfected. We are coordinating with our local, state and federal health officials for guidance on this issue in particular. Obviously this is different than what we normally see in a flu season, but we all lived through the H1N1 (flu) days (10 years ago), and this is pretty similar to what we saw then.”
Sheryl Talkington, the district’s health and drug-free coordinator, said education is a big key in combating the spread of COVID-19.
She said she has worked closely with Emily Galloway, the program director at the Butler County Health Department, in dealing with what steps to take to prevent COVID-19 infections.
“Prevention is the whole goal for us,” Talkington said. “We want to prevent people from getting sick, so (we are) educating students.
“We have posters up everywhere all over the schools in regards to all the things you’re supposed to be doing, washing your hands, covering your cough and your sneeze, throwing those tissues away, (using) hand sanitizer, not touching your face, your mouth and your nose — all those things — and staying home when you’re sick. We want our students to not be in school for 24 hours after they’re fever-free without using medications for that.”
Dill said COVID-19 has been on the district’s radar for a while.
“We’ve been meeting for the better part of a month now discussing this — the eventualities, watching it as it made its way through Asia, then Europe and now here in the United States,” Dill said. “Thankfully, we are leaning on our partners at Butler County Health. They’re in the driver’s seat on this, and they will be guiding a lot of the decisions that we make regarding who stays home, who comes to school and if our local schools stay open.”
Talkington said the district had a team effort going.
“We’re staying on top of it,” Talkington said. “We’re getting expert opinions from every place that we need those or as much as we can as anyone knows. We’re going to do whatever we can to keep our kids safe.”
Twin Rivers R-X
Meanwhile, the Twin Rivers R-X school district is taking advantage of a four-day weekend that began Thursday — the school’s de facto spring break — to give school buildings a thorough cleaning and disinfecting, superintendent Jeremy Siebert said.
“We are having custodians do what they did when we had a flu outbreak,” Siebert said, “They are double-sanitizing the rooms.
“We have a mist gun that can spray a virus-killing chemical. We’re going to be utilizing those at all three campuses to make sure things get double-sanitized over our break here.”
Still, even with preparation and prevention, this is new territory for most in the area.
“None of us have seen anything like this,” Siebert said.
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