The latest COVID surge has seen Ector County ISD trying to cope with employee absences, at some points, that it hadn’t seen since the beginning of the pandemic.
Chief Communications Officer Mike Adkins said beginning Jan. 3, ECISD has seen staff absences range anywhere from 7 1/2 percent to a high of about 12 1/2 percent.
The absence reports are run every day, but are based on when an employee goes online and fills one out, so someone could miss five days and not fill one out until they were better.
Adkins said the week of Jan. 24 that cases had dropped dramatically since Jan. 18 when some 350 positive COVID cases were reported.
This was after the long Martin Luther King weekend.
“It went from 350 positive cases on our Tuesday report to 175 on Wednesday to 106 on Thursday to 70 on Friday,” he said.
On Thursday, there were 11 positive COVID cases among staff and 52 positive student reports.
Under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which Adkins said the Ector County Health Department is also using, absence times have been shortened to five days for staff members. The period is longer for students.
“We have some adults quarantining because they’ve been exposed to somebody and there are adults staying home with kids. All of those roll into the absence numbers,” he said.
He added that the absences have a larger impact on smaller campuses.
“Five or six cases on an elementary campus has a much bigger impact than 15 or 20 at Odessa High School or Permian High School on managing the students and keeping the school operating,” Adkins said.
Ross Elementary School Principal Susan Hendricks said in a Jan. 24 interview that one day they were down 13 staff members.
“We’re a smaller campus, so that hits pretty hard when that happens, so all hands on deck. Everybody’s being plugged in where we can. Luckily through Opportunity Culture, we have … three Reach Associates so they have been able to help in those areas when needed. We’ve been hit hard and it’s been a struggle and I know it has been everywhere,” Hendricks said.
She added that it has hit their attendance as well, which is why strong instruction throughout the day, every single day is so critical.
Burleson Elementary School Principal Rosa Cruz has had a similar COVID experience with staff and students out sick.
Cruz said they have all had to roll up their sleeves and help in the classrooms.
Even at larger campuses like Odessa High School, Principal Mauricio Marquez said COVID has had a big impact.
“We’re still having school. We’re still having everything. We still have coaches that are having to go to their events; directors having to go to their events …,” Marquez said.
People are also out with illnesses other than COVID, they may have doctor’s appointments.
With all the absences, Marquez said they don’t have enough substitutes in the district to cover all the absences.
“… There are days that are better than others, but many times we just don’t have the number of individuals to cover the amount of absences for staff members …,” he said.
Marquez said there are teachers who volunteer to cover classes during their conference period for which they are compensated.
“That’s one way that we can certainly provide some support. I can tell you my team, my teachers, have been amazing in being able to do that and provide us with some support in covering some of those classes …,” Marquez added.
When they are not able to do that, they split classes — students go to another teacher’s class in the same discipline so they don’t lose instruction.
Schoology, a learning management system offered free through the Texas Education Agency, has been a help. Marquez said teachers can place their assignments in the system and all students have access to it because they all have their own devices.
But he said it’s not the same as being in class with a teacher.
OHS has about 220-225 teachers, not including personnel such as instructional aides.
“In the last couple of weeks, we’ve had 40 to 50 teachers out,” Marquez said.
He noted that COVID also has impacted student attendance.
“I’m blessed that I have an amazing team of individuals here, that everybody’s pitching in. They’re doing the very best that they can to provide our kids with every opportunity to be successful, but ultimately it does have an impact unfortunately when either a teacher is out or a student is not here …,” Marquez said.
Odessa Collegiate Academy Principal James Ramage has 370 students and 17 teachers at his early college high school.
Ramage was sick last week and the principal of OCTECHS, Karl Miller, had to oversee his school and OCA for about two days. The early college high schools don’t have assistant principals.
Six of OCA’s teachers were out last week.
“Then we didn’t have subs show up for them either. That’s what complicates things is when the subs don’t show,” Ramage said Friday. “Sometimes they don’t fill and then sometimes a sub will sign up for it and not show, so we’re at the mercy of them showing up. We had to get very creative with the schedule; all hands on deck. Teachers were covering classes. We were splitting classes. Thankfully, I’ve got a wonderful faculty that will step up and help each other so the 12 that were here were just fantastic in covering and getting each other’s back. … Because we’re small enough, it’s kind of like family, so we take care of each other,” he added.
Miller checked on OCA while Ramage was out.
Ramage said things ran normally and he was able to check email, message teachers, check on how they were doing and see how the day was progressing.
“I helped build the schedule for coverage from home and then just sent it out to everyone and we just worked that way,” Ramage said.
On Jan. 25, he said, they had all their teachers back for the first time in well over two or three weeks.
“… It seemed like everyone just got COVID at the same time … including our students. The bulk of our students are returning this week. All our teachers are back. I was having a tremendous amount of cases well over a week ago and now we’re not having that many cases at all.
“We just had a surge for really about two and a half weeks,” Ramage said.
He added that it was very trying and stressful.
“But everyone’s got each other’s back. You have to in this situation. It’s not anyone’s fault that they’re sick, that they’re home, so you just have to step up and help your colleague,” Ramage said.
On Jan. 4, Adkins said 7.7 percent of district employees were out and they had an employee attendance of 92.3 percent.
On Jan. 14, the absence rate was 12.6 percent. Adkins said it was part of the week where they were seeing the numbers rise.
On Jan. 21, the absence percentage was 9.3.
But on Jan. 24, they had a 4.8 percent absence rate.
“It was back in single digits all of last week,” Adkins said.
“It’s possible that the shorter quarantine period was a factor. It makes a quicker turnaround, so a group comes back and a group gets sick and goes off,” Adkins said.
“On many days, there have been campuses that have had to be very flexible and creative, but it may not be reflected in reports because of the timing and reporting,” he added.
Some people may fill out the report online right away and others may wait until they feel better.
“The absence rate is a little bit of a lagging statistic. We’ve had every department and every campus hit by a bubble, but just like in the community it’s been everywhere. People across the district have gotten sick with the virus,” Adkins said.
